Why carry out this study?

Prior to clinical diabetes, the elevations of postprandial plasma glucose are the first evident metabolic abnormalities. Elevated post-meal plasma glucose levels may be associated with cardiovascular risk and some other adverse outcomes.

Strong evidence supports the role of dietary treatment provided by dietitians as being effective for managing prediabetes, which can even reverse the progress of diabetes.

Because of the large population of diabetes in China, the uneven distribution of medical resources and the serious shortage of dietitians, it is particularly difficult to provide one-on-one or face-to-face nutritional guidance to individuals with prediabetes.

What was learned from the study?

Time in postprandial hyperglycemia changed from 3.27 h/day at baseline to 2.34 h/day at 3 months in the intervention group and from 3.08 h/day to 2.96 h/day in the control group, with a between-group difference of − 0.81 h/day.

Compared to the control group, the post-meal blood glucose level at 45 min to 135 min after the main meal was significantly lower in the intervention group (P < 0.05).

After the intervention, compared to the control group, the HbA1c was significantly lower in the intervention group (P < 0.05).

The mobile-app-based low-carbohydrate dietary guidance effectively reduced the time spent in postprandial hyperglycemia in adults with prediabetes.