Johns Hopkins University: AI-Powered Diabetes Prevention Program Shows Similar Benefits to Those Led by People

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health report that an AI-powered lifestyle intervention app for prediabetes reduced the risk of diabetes similarly to traditional, human-led programs in adults. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA Oct. 27, the study is believed to be the first phase III randomized controlled clinical trial to demonstrate that an AI-powered diabetes prevention program (DPP ) app helps patients meet diabetes risk-reduction benchmarks established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at rates comparable to those in human-led programs.

An estimated 97.6 million adults in the United States have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are above normal but below the threshold for type 2 diabetes, putting them at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next five years. Previous research has shown that adults with prediabetes who complete a human-led DPP, which help participants make lifestyle changes to diet and exercise, are 58% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, as shown in the CDC's original Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) clinical study. However, access barriers, such as scheduling conflicts and availability, have limited the reach of these programs.

In the study, the researchers tested whether a fully AI-driven program could provide adults with prediabetes similar health benefits as yearlong, group-based programs led by human coaches. "Even beyond diabetes prevention research, there have been very few randomized controlled trials that directly compare AI-based, patient-directed interventions to traditional human standards of care," says Nestoras Mathioudakis, M.D., M.H.S., co-medical director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Diabetes Prevention & Education Program and study principal investigator, regarding the absence of medical literature on health benefits of AI-based DPPs.

Read more