Impact of physical activity in glycaemic control of type 2 diabetic adults amongst the Maltese population

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes has become a great source of concern to governments, individuals and health care givers all over the world because of its serious long-term complications, such as blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, limb amputation and reduced life expectancy. Therefore, this study sets out to investigate the impact of physical activity in glycaemic control of Type 2 diabetic adults amongst the Maltese population. Well structured questionnaires were administered on a hundred and twenty patients who were regularly attending the Diabetes Clinic, at St. Luke’s Hospital, aged 30 to 44 years. They were informed that the questionnaires were designed for people with Type 2 diabetes. Only hundred patients responded and attended the first meeting prior to the exercise programme. These patients were randomly assigned into control and intervention groups using random sampling technique. Data collected from respondents were analyzed, put into Tables and were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results obtained showed that there were significant differences in HbA1c (p<0.005) and weight (p=0.001). The Intervention group HbA1c values and weight were significantly reduced (p<0.005) when compared with the control group, suggesting that exercise has an impact on the glycaemic control of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. This further reinforces the importance of exercise of any intensity on these two parameters. The difference in cholesterol was not significant but improved remarkably (p=0.008) which indicated that the difference is not big in magnitude. The improvement on glycaemic control correlated strongly with consistence in exercise programme (r = 0.333)2. The recommendation that exercise training can be used as a therapeutic means to lower blood glucose levels in Type 2 diabetes mellitus stems primarily from the fact that exercise has pronounced effects upon the metabolism of glucose. Further studies are recommended to elucidate how the metabolic effect of physical activity and Type 2 diabetes are modulated by duration of diabetes and intensity of exercise on the glycaemic control and lipid profile.