Approach to patients with diabetes and obesity in primary care

AIMS: The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment on weight control in patients with diabetes and obesity. DESIGN: Epidemiological, descriptive, cross-sectional study. SITE: Primary care. In 11 health centres in Málaga and Cádiz during April and October 2022. PARTICIPANTS: 281 patients over 18 years old with type 2 diabetes and obesity are included. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Socio-demographics, clinical, treatment and lifestyle habits variables were obtained from medical records and personal interview. Descriptive statistics were obtained for continuous variables. Statistical tests were performed based on the nature of the variables. RESULTS: Variables like marital status, level of education and occupation, and smoking habit, shows differences regarding the sex (p < 0.05). 82.3% of those who received education lost weight, compared to 67.5% of lost weight who received no health education (p = 0.004). GLP1 and SGLT2 were more commonly prescribed for women (p = 0.048), and SGLT2 more commonly prescribed for men (p = 0.047). Patients taking GLP1, SGLT2 or both, regardless of sex, weight loss during the study period was −3.1 kg (SE: 0.60), while the loss of those who took other medications was −1.33 kg (SE: 0.62). The mean difference was 1.75 kg (p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: In terms of weight loss, obese diabetics who took GLP1, SGLT2 or both were 2.5 times more likely to lose weight than those who did not. Healthy lifestyle choices are key to weight loss in obese diabetic patients.