People with diabetes who follow the recommendations around staying active could “offset” the risk of death that is linked to spending long periods of time of sitting down.
Health experts are concerned about the impact of sedentary behaviour on the health of the general population, and the increased risk of death that it is associated with.
Researchers set out to explore whether the link between sitting time and all-cause and heart disease mortality is affected by keeping active for people with diabetes.
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First author Wen Dai, a doctoral student in Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, explained: “Managing the elevated mortality risk in this high-risk population is particularly pressing given the widespread diabetes epidemic and the tendency among adults with diabetes to sit more and move less.”
The research team looked at data on people aged 20 or older with diabetes, taken from
the 2007-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES).
The participants were then followed through 2019, with researchers analysing self-reported data on sitting time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, along with mortality rates. The team also collected information on socio-demographics, lifestyle factors and medical conditions.
In terms of physical activity, this was divided into three groups: inactive (less than 10 minutes a week), insufficiently active (10 to 149 minutes a week), and active (more than 150 minutes a week).
A significant proportion of the participants – 38% – said they were physically active for less than 10 minutes a week.
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The research showed that people with diabetes who were inactive or who did less than 10 minutes of physical activity a week faced a greater risk of dying from all causes.
Over the six-year period, there were 1,278 deaths from all causes, with 354 deaths from heart disease for people aged, on average, 60-years-old. Of these, 48% were female and 61% non-Hispanic white.
This is the first study to show that doing the recommended amount of exercise can negate the increased risk of death from spending too long sitting down, even in those with diabetes.
Senior author Sandra Albrecht, assistant professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, said: “Our findings support an emphasis on encouraging and supporting patients in adhering to guideline-recommended physical activity levels, particularly for individuals whose life circumstances necessitate prolonged sitting in particular, such as drivers or office workers.”
Access the study in Diabetes Care.
