Almost one-third of people on low-calorie diet programme in remission from type 2 diabetes mellitus, study results show

Around one-third of participants in NHS England’s ‘Type 2 diabetes path to remission programme’ were able to put their diabetes into remission, a study has found.

The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology on 5 August 2024, looked at data from 7,540 participants who were referred to the programme between 1 September 2020 and 31 December 2022.

The programme, a joint initiative between NHS England and the charity Diabetes UK, offers eligible participants low-calorie meal replacements, amounting to between 800 and 900 calories per day, for up to 12 weeks, followed by behavioural support for a further nine months.

The study found that of 450 participants who had completed the year-long programme by the end of December 2022 and had two blood glucose level checks, 32% (145) were in remission, with an average weight loss of 15.9kg.

The data also show that the 1,740 participants who joined the programme before January 2022 lost an average of over 10kg in one year.

To be eligible, participants must be aged between 18 years and 65 years; have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) within the past six years and have a BMI of more than 25 kg/m² for black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups and more that 27 kg/m² for white ethnic groups.

Participants receive support and monitoring for 12 months in total, which includes help to re-introduce regular food after the initial 12-week period.

The programme was first introduced in September 2020, after a pilot in 21 areas of England involving 2,000 people.

An NHS England press release, published on 5 August 2024, said: “The recent expansion of the ‘NHS type 2 diabetes path to remission programme’ to cover all of England has the potential to benefit thousands more people.”

Commenting on the study, Elizabeth Robertson, director of research at Diabetes UK, said: “These latest findings add to the real-world evidence that the NHS England ‘Type 2 diabetes path to remission programme’ can help thousands of people living with type 2 diabetes [mellitus] on their weight loss and remission journey, which we know is tough and having support is critical.

“We hope to see even more people benefiting in years to come and an increase in referrals to the programme especially for people recently diagnosed with T2DM and in younger people where the impact of T2DM and remission from it is greatest.”

In May 2024, NHS England said that 20,000 people had taken part in the programme pilot so far and that an extra £13m would be provided to expand the programme across England.

According to an update published in NHS England’s board papers on 24 July 2024, more than 25,000 people had been referred by their GP or diabetes team to take part in the programme since its launch.

The intervention is based on research showing that almost half (46%) of people who follow a controlled weight-loss programme could experience remission of T2DM.

A report published by Diabetes UK in May 2024 said that 168,000 people aged under 40 years in the UK had been diagnosed with T2DM — an increase of 39% since 2016/2017, when 121,000 people aged under 40 years were diagnosed.

Diabetes UK said that children in the most deprived areas of the country were more than five times more likely to develop T2DM than those in the least deprived areas.

Nikki Joule, policy manager at Diabetes UK, said: “We were proud to have funded the research that the NHS ‘Type 2 diabetes path to remission programme’ is based on and were very pleased to see it expanded to the whole of England earlier this year.

“We know that many more people could benefit from the programme and hope to see a further expansion of places and an increase in referrals especially in people recently diagnosed with T2DM and in people [aged] below 40 years, where the impact of T2DM and remission from it could be greatest.”