Evaluating the Impact of Continuous Glucose Monitors on Dietary Choices, Physical Activity, and Hormonal Regulation in Non-Diabetic Older Adults

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effects of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), nutrition education, and activity tracking on behavioral and metabolic outcomes in 21 non-diabetic older adults. Participants completed a 6-week intervention consisting of a 2-week blinded CGM baseline followed by 4 weeks of unblinded CGM with individualized nutrition education. Dietary patterns showed no significant changes in meal frequency or eating window (p > 0.05). Biomarker analyses showed limited change, including a significant decrease in high molecular weight adiponectin (p = 0.02), while inflammatory markers demonstrated nonsignificant improvements. Physical activity increased modestly, with median step count increasing from 7,707 to 8,552 steps/day (p > 0.05). Despite modest behavioral and biomarkers changes, glycemic metrics improved, suggesting potential benefits of CGM-based biofeedback with nutrition education. These findings suggest CGM-supported interventions may promote early metabolic improvements in older adults, although longer interventions may be required to produce significant behavioral and biomarker adaptations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nutrition

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Calhoun, Kelly

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Juma, Shanil
• Robbins, Ronna
• Tucker, Wesley

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Wen-Hsing, Cheng

• Continuous glucose monitoring
• Obesity
• Older adults
• Non-diabetic
• Overweight
• Physical function
• Nutrition education
• Inflammation
• Eating window

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11274/17876

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/17876