Exercise Intervention for Blood Pressure Reduction in Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Diabetes is a disease that occurs when the blood glucose is too high in the body. The disease has become a deadly epidemic due to its widespread and increasing prevalence. With the increasing prevalence of diabetic cases globally, and most especially in the United States of America, there is an urgent need to manage the disease by assessing the impact of exercise on blood pressure reduction in a diabetic patient. An electronic search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar for studies published between January 2005 and December 2023. The meta-analysis was performed without any restriction on patients’ gender, demographics, and ethnicity. The finding was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (PRISMA) checklist. Six studies met the inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. Our result showed that the intervention group significantly caused a reduction in systolic blood pressure (SMD = -0.12 mmHg, 95% CI, -0.58 to 0.35; tau square = 0.3790; p < 0.0001) and diastolic blood pressure (SMD = -1.29 mmHg, 95% CI, -2.49 to -0.08; tau square = 2.9214; p < 0.0001) in patients with diabetes. The review demonstrated that regular exercise could positively impact patient health status and reduce the risk of death.