Physical activity levels in male and female diabetic patients at the Pretoria academic hospital, South Africa

Abstract

Introduction: A comprehensive literature review indicated the
existence of a gap in the studying of gender difference and physical activity in people with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in South Africa.
Objectives: The aims of this study was to determine the level of physical activity (LPA) of diabetes patients of the Diabetes clinic of the Pretoria Academic Hospital (DCPAH), to compare the LPA between male and female diabetes patients and to explore the reasons for possible differences.
Design: A descriptive and comparative quantitative study.
Setting: Diabetes Clinic of the Pretoria Academic Hospital.
Subjects: The convenience sample consisted of 65 subjects (29 males and 36 females) between the ages of 18 and 83 years
Results: The average physical activity of male subjects was 5164.05 METs compared to 4843.83 METs in female subjects. A p-value of 0.3660 was calculated. Of the subjects, 46,15% achieved a high LPA, 27,69% achieved a moderateLPA and 26.15% achieved a low LPA according to the IPAQ scoring system. The seven main barriers found was health, diabetes, time, laziness, socio-economic circumstances, perceptual adequate exercise and other.
Conclusion: The overall LPA of diabetes patients is high according to the IPAQ Categorical scoring. The difference between LPA of males and females is not significant as indicated by the p-value (p>0.05). It was however found that males have higher levels of work related activities than females and that females have higher home and garden related activities than males. The two most frequently mentioned barriers for male and female subjects were time and health related conditions.