Aggressive intervention is unwarranted in people older than 75 who meet criteria for prediabetes, researchers have concluded after tracking a cohort living in the community.

In one of the few studies to look at progression to disease among older adults with prediabetes, the US team found they were more likely to regress to normoglycaemia or die than be diagnosed with diabetes.

Rather than prescribing medication, the researchers urged doctors to focus on lifestyle interventions and manage cardiovascular risk factors in the older population.

Associate Professor Neale Cohen, head of diabetes clinical research at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, said any other approach was actually not evidence-based.