Symposium 12: Physical activity in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Symposium 12: Physical activity in people with diabetes

Physical activity in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Physical activity (PA) is a fundamental pillar in the treatment of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). From a comprehensive approach to movement, we can divide the day into 3 stages: the sleeping hours, which entail a caloric cost of 1 MET; the active time, which includes all the activities that generate a caloric cost higher than 1.5 METs; and the sedentary behavior (SB), which includes the time a person spends awake, but sitting down, reclined or lying down, with a caloric cost of 1.5 or less METs.

That is how a person can combine activity patterns, such as being active (if reaching the PA goals appropriate for their age) and, at the same time, being sedentary if they spend several hours sitting down (as it might happen during working hours). The higher sedentary behavior is correlated to a higher fasting glycemia and less time-in-range in people with T2D. In a multicenter research with 495 people with type 2 diabetes in Argentina, a 52.3% exhibited a lower level of PA, which means they did not reach 150 minutes of PA or 600 METs per week. The factors associated with a lower level of PA were: older age, being female, greater corporal mass index and higher HbA1c. When evaluating sedentary behavior, it was registered an average of 5 hours per day, with a 25% of the patients spending more than 6 hours. Sedentary behavior was also associated with a higher HbA1c.