Promote exercise, cut sedentary time in diabetics, says study

Sedentary time may contribute to increasing bodyweight in patients with type 2 diabetes, reports a new Japan study.

The study included 1,053 type 2 diabetes patients (mean age, 62.7±11.3 years; 612 males) who self-completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short form. Of the participants, 158 underwent measurements for waist circumference (WC) and visceral fat accumulation (VFA).

Participants were categorized according to their IPAQ results. A total of 317 participants were found to have high levels of physical activity, while 328 and 363 had moderate and low activity, respectively. The corresponding median sedentary times were 180, 240 and 300 minutes per day. Overall, participants had had the condition for a mean of 13.9±8.8 years, with a mean glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) concentration of 6.98±1.08 percent.

Analysis of covariance found that HbA1c levels did not significantly differ among the three categories of physical activity. Body mass index (BMI), however, did and was reduced in participants who had high levels of activity per week.

When taken instead as a continuous variable, physical activity showed significant but inverse associations with WC (p=0.008) and VFA (p=0.007). No such effect was reported for BMI and HbA1c.

Sedentary time also appeared to be an important variable. Though no interaction with HbA1c was found (p=0.72), sedentary time was shown to be significantly and positively correlated with BMI (p<0.0001). WC (p=0.11) and VFA (p=0.09) were both unrelated to sedentary time.

“These results suggest the importance of both reducing sedentary time and elevating intensity of physical activity for the prevention of becoming overweight and obese in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes,” said researchers.