Sensors (Nov 2023)

The Impact of Sex, Body Mass Index, Age, Exercise Type and Exercise Duration on Interstitial Glucose Levels during Exercise

  • Ninoschka C. D’Souza,
  • Durmalouk Kesibi,
  • Christopher Yeung,
  • Dorsa Shakeri,
  • Ashwin I. D’Souza,
  • Alison K. Macpherson,
  • Michael C. Riddell

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23229059
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 22
p. 9059

Abstract

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The impact of age, sex and body mass index on interstitial glucose levels as measured via continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) during exercise in the healthy population is largely unexplored. We conducted a multivariable generalized estimating equation (GEE) analysis on CGM data (Dexcom G6, 10 days) collected from 119 healthy exercising individuals using CGM with the following specified covariates: age; sex; BMI; exercise type and duration. Females had lower postexercise glycemia as compared with males (92 ± 18 vs. 100 ± 20 mg/dL, p = 0.04) and a greater change in glycemia during exercise from pre- to postexercise (p = 0.001) or from pre-exercise to glucose nadir during exercise (p = 0.009). Younger individuals (i.e., p p 2), had higher pre-exercise glycemia than the healthy BMI group (104 ± 20 vs. 97 ± 17 mg/dL, p = 0.02) but similar glucose levels after exercise. Resistance exercise was associated with less of a drop in glycemia as compared with aerobic or mixed forms of exercise (p = 0.008) and resulted in a lower percent of time in the hypoglycemic (p = 0.04) or hyperglycemic (glucose > 140 mg/dL) (p = 0.03) ranges. In summary, various factors such as age, sex and exercise type appear to have subtle but potentially important influence on CGM measurements during exercise in healthy individuals.

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