Study design
A quasi-experimental study was conducted in a randomly selected public hospital. After collecting relevant baseline data from the intervention and control groups, a physical activity promotion program was implemented for six months. In this study, physical activity interventions focused three recommended areas of physical activity including work-related activities, travel to and from places activities, and leisure-time-related activities. The diabetic did at least 150 min of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, and 75 min of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week. Additionally, unstructured daily activities such as housework, dog walking, and gardening are the most common. Patients underwent a 30- to 50-minute exercise education program to ensure adherence to recommended activities.
Subjects and sample selection
A total of 216 eligible participants were enrolled in the study. Five hundred eight patients were excluded from the study for various reasons. These included 294 patients with other types of diabetes, 97 patients with less than three months of follow-up, and 117 patients with serious complications. The study included consenting patients, aged 20 to 70, with no complications, who stayed for at least six months, and had no intention of leaving. Patients who had other types of diabetes, patients who had disease duration of less than 6 months, refused consent, patient who were unable to participate in interventions based on physician assessment (e.g., acute illness, mental illness, and dementia) and patients with severe visual impairment were excluded from the study.
All samples (216) were divided into intervention (108) and control (108) groups assuming an equal sample distribution. Study participants were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Intervention and control groups of diabetic patients were selected from different locations within the zone. Study participants were registered under a specific code but were not informed of their group assignment and thus were unaware of differences between the intervention and control groups. The list of participants and their codes are kept only by the researcher. All groups of study participants were geographically separated to avoid the risk of contamination. Additionally, patients, health care providers, and promoters (health educators) were blinded to the study results to avoid the hawthorn effect.
Implementation and follow-up of intervention
After collecting relevant baseline data from both groups, a physical activity promotion program was implemented for a period of six months. Two health promoters and one facilitator were recruited for the intervention group and trained on the implementation and packaging of physical activity promotion of program modules. Training focuses primarily on session structure, communication skills and style. In addition, health promoters were trained in educational modules. The educational module was developed based on WHO recommendations for physical activity in the general population [
14,
38]. Additionally, adults with diabetes should be encouraged to reduce their total daily sedentary time [
15,
16,
39].
Patients received a 30–50 min educational program aimed at following current international recommendations for the general population. The educational program includes (1) vigorous intensive work-related activities such as weightlifting, forestry (cutting, chopping, carrying wood), cutting crops, gardening (digging), grinding, laboring (shoveling sand), loading furniture (stoves, fridge) and cycle rickshaw driving and moderate-intensity work-related activities such as cleaning (vacuuming, mopping, polishing, scrubbing, sweeping, ironing), washing (beating and brushing carpets, wringing clothes (by hand), gardening, milking cows (by hand), planting and harvesting crops, digging dry soil (with spade), woodwork (chiseling, sawing softwood), mixing cement (with shovel), labouring (pushing loaded wheelbarrow and drawing water; (2) travel to and from places activities that include walking or bicycle (pedal cycle) and moving around throughout the day for at least 10 min continuously, brisk walking 30 min five days a week; (3) Recreation/leisure-time/-related activities includes vigorous-intensity sports, fitness or recreational activities such as running or football, tennis, aqua aerobics and fast swimming for at least 10 min continuously and moderate-intensive recreational activities such as cycling, dancing, horse-riding, yoga and team sports. All diabetics performed 150 min of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, at least 30–50 min, 5–3 days per week respectively. In addition, patients should increase unstructured physical activity, such as housework activities.
Patients attended an educational session on the same day as their medication appointment. Three educational sessions were held each week. Educational sessions take the form of lectures, group discussions and sometimes individual consultations. The educational session approach aims to increase understanding of the proposed areas of physical activity and facilitate adoption of the proposed exercises. During follow-up, patients received written educational materials to help with practical management.
Additionally, the assigned educator performed the following key activities:
(1) Encourage safe and effective physical activity; (2) Assess physical and emotional barriers to regular physical activity programs; (3) work with individuals to develop appropriate action plans; (4) assist a person set goals for physical activity; (5) record the type, number of days, and duration of physical activity performed; and (6) encourage increased efforts to create safe spaces for physical activity and reduce barriers to physical activity in the community.
A control group did not receive any specific intervention during follow-up. Control patients received usual care according to national guidelines for non-communicable diseases. During follow-up, the study group was adhere to the patient’s care by the healthcare provider and study team as in the intervention group, except for the newly developed exercise package. All patients at the hospital received similar exercise package after the newly introduced package was scale up.
Measurement of the outcome variables
Outcome parameters included changes in physical activity habits and practices and changes in glycemic control. Data were measured twice (baseline and end line survey after six months using interviewer-administered questionnaires). At each selected public hospital, two trained nurses collected all relevant data. During follow-up, the patient’s blood glucose was measured with a PRODIGY® blood glucose meter.
Physical activity data were collected using the WHO Physical Activity Questionnaire [
38] and analyzed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire Analysis Guide [
38]. This includes the types of activities they did, the time spent on each activity, and the number of days per week spent on each activity. A diabetic patient who reported moderately vigorous physical activity ≥ 5 days per week or vigorous physical activity ≥ 3 days per week met national guidelines for physical activity [
38].
Fasting blood sugar (FBS) is the most commonly used measure of glycemic control. The patient was asked to fast at least 8 h prior to the appointment in order to provide a blood sample for laboratory testing. The mean of the FBS measurements for three consecutive months was used for the baseline FBS analysis. Mean values of six consecutive months of FBS measurements were used for analysis during follow-up. Based on ADA guideline recommendations, glycemic status is classified as good if mean FBS is between 80 and 130 mg/dL and poor if above 130 mg/dL [
40].