Lifestyle Counseling and Long-term Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between lifestyle counseling in primary care settings and clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We retrospectively studied hyperglycemic adults with diabetes treated at primary care practices between 2000 and 2014. We analyzed the relationship between frequency of lifestyle counseling (identified using natural language processing of electronic notes) and a composite outcome of death and cardiovascular events during subsequent follow-up. RESULTS Among patients with monthly counseling or more, 10-year cumulative incidence of the primary outcome was 33.0% compared with 38.1% for less than monthly counseling (P = 0.0005). In multivariable analysis, higher frequency of lifestyle counseling was associated with lower incidence of the primary outcome (hazard ratio 0.88 [95% CI 0.82–0.94]; P CONCLUSIONS More frequent lifestyle counseling was associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular events and death among patients with diabetes.