Eureka! Institutional Repository

The purpose of the present study is to record the levels of physical activity of diabetic patients in the general population of Greece, to compare with the levels of non diabetic population and to investigate possible associations with factors such as age, sex, BMI, smoking habits. A total of 389 people aged 6 to 79 years, male and female, completed the questionnaire and IPAQ online. They were divided into two groups according to whether or not they were diabetic and each of them was subdivided into three subgroups depending on the level of physical activity: low physical activity, moderate physical activity and high physical activity. The results showed that the majority of diabetic (55%) and non-diabetic (66%) individuals belonged to moderate physical activity, while there was no statistical difference in the overall physical activity of both groups (p> 0.05). Male diabetic patients appeared to be more active than women (p <0.05), whereas type 1 diabetic patients appeared to be more active than type 2 (p <0.05). The overall incidence of diabetic patients showed a negative correlation with age (r = -0.139 p <0.05) and BMI (r=-0.223 p <0.001) while smoking habits were not correlated with any parameters. From the results we can conclude that the level of physical activity in Greek diabetic patients is at a satisfactory level and does not differ statistically significantly from that of non-diabetic individuals. However, due to the limitations of the sample on gender distribution and type of diabetes, further research is needed to document the result.