Every Minute Counts

Studies on the relationship between physical activity and risk of developing type 2 diabetes have been done before, but were usually based on survey data. But the experts of the program All of Us approached the question responsibly and used the data from Fitbit devices, which were worn continuously for four years by the participants of the experiment, for the analysis.

A total of 5,677 people participated in the study, 74 % women and 26 % men around 51 years of age. The devices not only counted how much they walked, but also evaluated the intensity of physical activity, dividing it into slightly active, fairly active and very active. On average, the subjects were only moving very actively for 16 minutes a day. Yet by the end of the experiment, only 97 participants had type 2 diabetes, 44 % fewer than those who walked 6,000 steps, regardless of age, sex or body mass index (BMI).

Another interesting finding of the study is that duration, not intensity, of physical activity is important for preventing type 2 diabetes.

Source: https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgac695/6862895

29 December 2022