Cardiometabolic disease staging (CMDS) can quantify diabetes risk in overweight/obese individuals, according to an analysis involving more than 3,000 individuals. Moreover, it appears to help predict the efficacy of weight loss therapy as a preventive measure.

Patients were all overweight/obese and participants in 1 of 3 phase 3 studies that evaluated phentermine/topiramate extended release. They were treated with a lifestyle intervention and randomly assigned to placebo or oral therapy once a day. Among the results:

• Patients with high-risk baseline CMDS scores had the largest difference in diabetes incidence decrease between treatment and placebo groups (~10% vs ~6%).
• The decreases in those with moderate CMDS risk were ~5% and ~2%, respectively; in low-risk patients they were 1.5% and 0.5%, respectively.
• 24 patients needed to be treated to prevent 1 new case of diabetes in those with high-risk CMDS scores.
• In moderate- and low-risk groups these numbers were 43 and 120, respectively.