By Colin Kenny, Editor – Diabetes Distilled
Investigators wanted to discover whether positive changes in physical activity and a decrease in sedentary behaviour could be maintained over time in people with type 2 diabetes. They randomised 300 inactive and sedentary patients with type 2 diabetes to receive a behavioural intervention or standard care and followed them for an average of 3 years. Significant between-group differences in favour of the behavioural intervention were maintained throughout the study. The investigators felt that a behavioural intervention could lead to a sustained increase in physical activity and reduction in sedentary time.
The Italian Diabetes and Exercise Study 2 (IDES_2) was conducted in three outpatient diabetes clinics in Rome to investigate whether changes in activity levels and sedentary behaviour could be maintained over time. Physically inactive and sedentary patients with type 2 diabetes were randomised to receive a behavioural intervention (n=150) or standard care (n=150) for 3 years. The behavioural intervention consisted of an individual theoretical counselling session followed by eight individual biweekly theoretical and practical counselling sessions each year. Participants in the standard care group received treatment recommended by their GP.
The participants had a mean age of 61.6 years and were followed-up for a median of 3 years. There were significant differences in the volumes of light and moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity undertaken by the two groups (P<0.001), which were maintained throughout the study, although the between-group difference in moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity decreased from 6.5 min/day to 3.6 min/day during the final year of the study. The investigators felt that, compared with standard care, a behavioural intervention strategy could increase physical activity and decrease sedentary time in people with type 2 diabetes.
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