Association Of Aerobic Physical Activity And Resistance Exercise With Glycated Hemoglobin In Women With Diabetes

Purpose: American Diabetes Association recommends patients with diabetes to participate in >150 minutes of physical activity (PA) and at least twice weekly of resistance exercise (RE). However, its benefits in controlling glucose levels among women with diabetes is not completely understood. Therefore, we investigated whether meeting this guideline is associated with lower odds of uncontrolled diabetes among women with diabetes using a nationwide cross-sectional survey dataset. Methods: We analyzed 1,213 women with diabetes from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014-2018. Using PA questionnaires, participants were categorized to whether meeting either or both PA guidelines (≥ 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA) and RE participation (≥ twice weekly). Further, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels >7.5% were classified as uncontrolled diabetes. Multivariate logistic regression models were employed to investigate the association between meeting PA guidelines and uncontrolled diabetes. Results: There was no association between meeting aerobic PA guidelines of >150 minutes per week and uncontrolled diabetes. However, participating in RE > twice weekly was associated with 47% lower odds of HbA1c >7.5% in fully adjusted models (odds ratio: 0.53; 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.89; p < 0.05). Moreover, the association between RE participation and lower odds of HbA1c >7.5% was observed regardless of age, body mass index, and prevalence of hypertension. Conclusions: Participation in RE may be important for women with diabetes for glycemic control. Further research is needed to better comprehend the associations of HbA1c with different exercise modalities (i.e., resistance vs aerobic exercise) in female patients with diabetes. Signature Research Cluster Project (2023-22-0017)