Effect of mild exercise on glycemic and bodyweight control in Japanese type 2 diabetes patients: A retrospective analysis

We retrospectively evaluated the effects of mild physical exercise (P) in a routine clinical setting on glycemic and bodyweight control in Japanese type 2 diabetes patients with and without individualized nutritional therapy (D). We analyzed 49 patients who participated in P that measured 2.5 metabolic equivalents and was held once every 2 weeks, compared with 83 non‐participant controls, followed over a period of approximately 1.6 years. With a Cox model, the adjusted hazard ratio for improved glycated hemoglobin by numerical count of P was 1.03 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00–1.07; P = 0.025). Among four categories – with neither P nor D, only P, only D, and both P and D – the hazard ratios for reduced body mass index were 1.0, 0.87 (95% CI 0.46–1.67), 0.58 (95% CI 0.25–1.30) and 2.17 (95% CI 1.03–4.59), respectively. Even mild physical exercise contributed to glycemic control. The combination of P and D exerted beneficial effects on bodyweight control.