The effect of a daily walk on glycemic control and aerobic capacity in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

An, Keun Hee; Ahn, Hee Jung; Lim, Kang IL; Han, Kyung Ah; Min, Kyung Wan

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Regular exercise improves glycemic control and exercise capacity. However, 47.5% of Korean patients with type 2 diabetes do not take part in exercise at least once a week. A recommendation to accumulate 10,000 steps throughout the day has many advantages. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of increasing the number of walking steps per day on glycemic control and exercise capacity using a pedometer in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics who did not take part in exercise at least once a week.
METHODS
We included twenty nine Korean type 2 diabetic patients aged 46-62 years who presented with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and did not take part in exercise at least once a week. They were encouraged to walk more than 10,000 step/day and the daily steps were recorded using pedometers. A gradual loading exercise test was administered, with an electric stationary upright cycle ergometer, to estimate the rate of oxygen consumption (VO2), exercise time, load and metabolic equivalent (MET) before and after 12 weeks of walk training. Before and after the intervention, metabolic and lipid profiles and aerobic exercise levels were evaluated for all subjects. Subject descriptive comparisons were made with paired t-tests. The Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated as well to analyze the linear relationship among variables.
RESULTS
The results showed that the number of steps per day were increased to about 10,000 steps per day (p<0.001). Body mass index (p<0.001), abdominal circumference (p=0.011), aerobic exercise capacity level and glycemic control were significantly improved (p<0.001). However, lipid profiles were not affected during the exercise intervention. There was a positive correlation between increases in steps per day and changes of aerobic capacity such as peak VO2 (r=0.46, p<0.05). Also, increases in steps per day were negatively correlated with changes in HbA1c (r=-0.711, p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that both glycemic control and aerobic capacity are improved with increasing the number of steps to over 10,000 steps per day in newly diagnosed Korean type 2 diabetics. Our result suggest that a pedometer may be used as a simple and effective method of encouraging physical activity to type 2 diabetics who did not take part in exercise at least once a week.