Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) who are physically active have a significantly reduced risk for developing Type 2 diabetes compared with those who are inactive, show study results.

Frank Visseren (University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands) and colleagues collected data from 3940 participants of the SMART (second manifestation of arterial disease) study, all of whom had arterial disease, hypertension, or hyperlipidemia. The patients were aged 55.2 years on average at baseline.

The researchers assessed the participants’ leisure-time physical activity. According to international guidelines, which define sufficient physical activity as at least 30 min/day of moderately intensive physical activity on 5 days of the week, 65% of the participants were physically inactive (0 metabolic equivalent [MET] h/wk), 12% had an insufficient level of physical activity (0??”10.5 MET h/wk), and 23% were sufficiently physically active (10.5 MET h/wk or more).

Over an average follow-up period of 4.7 years, 194 (5%) incident cases of Type 2 diabetes were recorded.

Patients who were sufficiently physically active were 45% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes over the study period than those who were inactive.

Of note, when body mass index (BMI) was taken into account, patients who were sufficiently physically active who had a BMI below 30 kg/m² (nonobese) were 82% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who were inactive and obese.

“The present study shows that leisure-time physical activity is associated with a decreased incidence of Type 2 diabetes in patients with vascular disease or poorly controlled risk factors,” write the authors in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.

They conclude: “Insufficient and sufficient physical activity is likely to improve health in high-risk patients leading to a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and (new) cardiovascular events.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010.

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