Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviour In Scottish Youth With Type 1 Diabetes

Physical activity can benefit the health of youth with Type 1 diabetes. Despite the benefits some studies have found patients do not always meet the physical activity recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. Physical activity and sedentary behaviour have not been measured previously in Scottish youth with Type 1 diabetes.

Purpose To determine levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Scottish youth with Type 1 diabetes.

Methods Twenty children (9M/11F) aged 7-9yrs and 20 adolescents (11M/9F) aged 12-14yrs with Type 1 diabetes were recruited from a clinic in Glasgow. Participants wore the Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometer for 7 days during all waking hours except during water-based activities. Participants with ≥10 hours of data (between 06:00-23.59 hours) over 3 days were included in analysis. Data were downloaded in 15-s epochs. Time in MVPA (≥3200cpm) and sedentary behaviour (<800cpm) were determined using validated and calibrated cut-points for youth (Puyau, et al., 2002).

Results All participants had sufficient data to be included in analysis. Participants spent (mean±SD) 208±118 minutes/week in MVPA and 3932±144 minutes/week in sedentary behaviour. Average daily MVPA was 33±3 minutes/day and sedentary time was 644±13 minutes/day. No participants achieved 60 minutes MVPA every day that they wore the monitor and 23/40 (56%) participants did not meet the guidelines on any wear day

Conclusions None of the participants met the minimum guideline for physical activity on every day of monitor wear. However, participants were not any less active than healthy youth of similar ages in UK studies using similar data collection and handling techniques. An average of 81% of each day was spent in sedentary behaviour. Given the importance of physical activity in the management of Type 1 diabetes this study confirms the need for physical activity and sedentary behaviour interventions in Scottish youth with Type 1 diabetes.