Adherence to physical activity in people with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the adherence to physical activity among people with type 2 diabetes Methods: Quantitative, cross-sectional, nonexperimental, descriptive, and correlational study, with a sample of 102 people suffering from type 2 diabetes whose age ranged between 40 and 85 years. Most of the participants were male (51.96%). The evaluation protocol included a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, Diabetes Self-Care Scale(1) and the Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire(2). The HbA1c clinical parameter was used to directly assess adherence. Results: The self-care activity in which respondents showed higher level of involvement was glucose monitoring that had an average participation of 5.73 days per week. Inversely, participants did not seem interested in physical activity. In this sort of activity participation amounted to 1 mere day per week on average. The study also showed that people with type 2 diabetes show minimal knowledge of areas related to the identity of the illness, its causes, complications, and treatment. 53.9% of the respondents did not recognise the role played by physical exercise in the treatment of their condition. Conclusion: Reducing the incidence of this disease is an imperative and preventive measure must be implemented to prevent the appearance of the problem, especially for people at higher risk. Among all the possible measures to be implemented, special focus will have to be placed on physical activity and weight loss. Physical activity has a direct impact on the control of the disease through the reduction of HbA1c levels, but its influence is also evident in other parameters, like weight loss, prevention of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and it also plays a crucial role in increasing quality of life.

Keywords

• diabetes
• physical exercise
• adherence