Sustained increase in physical fitness independently predicts improvements in cardiometabolic risk profile in type 2 diabetes

Mobile Health Biometrics to Enhance Exercise and Physical Activity Adherence in Type 2 Diabetes (MOTIVATE-T2D): a decentralised feasibility randomised controlled trial delivered across the UK and Canada

OBJECTIVES

Assess the feasibility of a mobile health (mHealth)-supported home-delivered physical activity (PA) intervention (MOTIVATE-T2D) in people with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes (T2D).

DESIGN

Feasibility multicentre, parallel group, randomised controlled trial (RCT).

SETTING

Participants were recruited from England and Canada using a decentralised design.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults (40-75 years) recently diagnosed with T2D (5-24 months).

INTERVENTIONS

Participants were randomised 1:1 to intervention (MOTIVATE-T2D) or active control groups. Participants codesigned 6month- home-delivered, personalised, progressive PA programmes supported by virtual behavioural counselling. MOTIVATE-T2D used biofeedback from wearable technologies to support the programme. The active control group received the same intervention without wearables.

OUTCOMES

The primary outcomes were recruitment rate, retention and adherence to purposeful exercise. Clinical data on effectiveness were collected as exploratory outcomes at baseline, 6 and 12 months, with HbA1c and systolic blood pressure (BP) proposed as primary outcomes for a future full RCT.

RESULTS

n=135 eligible participants expressed an interest in the trial, resulting in 125 participants randomised (age 55±9 years, 48% female, 81% white), a recruitment rate of 93%. Retention at 12 months was 82%. MOTIVATE-T2D participants were more likely to start (OR 10.4, CI 3.4 to 32.1) and maintain purposeful exercise at 6 (OR 7.1, CI 3.2 to 15.7) and 12 months (OR 2.9, CI 1.2 to 7.4). Exploratory clinical outcomes showed a potential effect in favour of MOTIVATE-T2D, including proposed primary outcomes HbA1c and systolic BP (between-group mean differences: HbA1c: 6 months: -5% change from baseline, CI -10 to 2: 12 months: -2% change from baseline, CI -8 to -4; systolic BP: 6 months: -1 mm Hg, CI -5 to 3: 12 months: -4 mm Hg, CI -8 to 1).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support the feasibility of delivering the MOTIVATE-T2D mHealth-supported PA intervention for people with recently diagnosed T2D and progression to a full RCT to examine its clinical and cost-effectiveness.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

ISRCTN: 14335124; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT0465353.

The combined effect of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness on the incidence of metabolic syndrome before midlife

BACKGROUND

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) could reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) while the association between muscular endurance capacity (MEC) and incident MetS has rarely been investigated in young adults.

METHODS

A total of 2890 military men and women, aged 18-39 years, free of baseline MetS in Taiwan, were followed for incident MetS from baseline (2014) until the end of 2020. All subjects received annual health examinations for assessment of MetS. Physical fitness was assessed by CRF (estimated maximal oxygen uptake, VO2 max [mL/kg/min], in a 3000-m run) and MEC (numbers of 2-min push-ups). MetS was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Multiple Cox regression analysis was conducted with adjustments for baseline age, sex, substance use status and physical activity to determine the associations of CRF and MEC with incidences of new-onset MetS and related features, for example, central obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and prediabetes or diabetes. To examine the combined effects of CRF and MEC status on incidence of MetS, high and low levels of CRF and MEC were separately defined by over and under the sex-specific median in each exercise test.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 5.8 years, there were 673 (23.3%) new-onset MetS. Higher CRF was associated with a lower incidence of MetS (hazard ratio [HR] and 95% confidence interval: 0.905 [0.877-0.933]), and its components separately, except hypertension. No association was observed between MEC and incident MetS, and its components separately, except hypertension. When evaluating the combined effects of MEC and CRF status on the incidence of MetS, it was observed that compared with the low CRF/low MEC, the high CRF/high MEC (HR: 0.553 [0.439-0.697]) and the high CRF/low MEC (HR: 0.730 [0.580-0.918]) had a lower incidence of new-onset MetS (P value for the intergroup difference = 0.04). There was no significant result for the low CRF/high MEC.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights that although the protective effects of MEC to reduce the incidence of MetS and most of its related features were mainly driven by CRF in young adults, there was an addictive effect of greater MEC on CRF to prevent the development of new-onset MetS before midlife.

The relationship between different exercise conditions and pericoronary inflammation as quantified by coronary CTA in coronary artery disease

Objectives

The correlation between exercise type and intensity and coronary artery inflammation in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is unknown. Therefore, this study assessed the relationship between coronary inflammation quantified by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and exercise intensity and pattern in patients with CAD.

Materials and methods

Patients who underwent CCTA between 2019 and 2023 in the second hospital of Lanzhou University were retrospectively examined. We calculated the pericoronary fat attenuation index (FAI) on the right coronary artery (RCA) as a marker of coronary inflammation. We compared basic information, exercise status, and RCA-FAI values between the two groups, and described the relationship between different exercise durations and RCA-FAI using analysis of variance and restricted cubic splines.

Results

In total, 1222 patients were included: 774 had no CAD and 448 patients had CAD. Sex (P = 0.016; odds ratio [OR]: 0.673), high-density lipoprotein (P = 0.006; OR: 0.601), low-density lipoprotein (P = 0.001; OR. 0.762), hypertension (P = 0.000; OR: 0.762), smoking (P = 0.005; OR: 0.670), and postprandial glucose (P = 0.030; OR: 0.812), household income (P = 0.038; OR:1.117), and body mass index (P = 0.000; OR:1.084) were the risk factors for elevated RCA-FAI values in the patients with coronary artery disease group. And when the exercise modality was running and aerobics, the correlation between RCA-FAI values and exercise time showed a "U"-shaped relationship. Follow-up revealed that short periods of high-intensity exercise resulted in lower RCA-FAI values.

Conclusion

RCA-FAI was significantly associated with coronary artery inflammation. Although appropriate physical activity reduced the risk of pericoronary inflammation and coronary atherosclerosis, overly prolonged exercise could exacerbate the coronary inflammatory response and increase the likelihood of CAD.