AIM: To observe the influence of exercise therapy on the emotion and the quality of sleep in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS: The patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were hospitalized in the Department of Internal Medicine, Employee's General Hospital of Anyang Iron and Steel Group were used as our studying subjects between January 2003 and January 2004. Forty type 2 diabetes mellitus patients accordant with the criteria by American Diabetes Association in 1997 were included in our study. They were randomly divided into exercise therapy group and control group with 20 in each. All the patients received routine treatment, besides those in the exercise therapy group took part in the programmed exercise training such aerobic exercise as cycle ergometer, dancing, outdoor jogging, walking, bicycling, going to/down stairs. The exercise intensity: target heart rate after exercise reached 170 minus patient's age beats per minute, manifesting by a little sweat, lightening and happiness, good appetite and sleep; The time of exercise began commonly from the first hour after dinner, one hour at a time or 20 minutes at a time for 3 times, 3 to 4 times a week, and the total time for target heart rate was optimal between 20 and 30 minutes ordinarily. The preparing time for warming-up exercise should be equal to or more than 10 minutes, and the time for warming-down exercise should be betwicn 10 and to 15 minutes. The patients in the control group attended to exercise voluntarily. The emotion and quality of sleep of the patients were assessed with sleep quality inventory scale and symptom checklist (SCL) before and after exercise. RESULTS: According to intention-to-treat, all the 40 patients were analyzed in the result without loss. The scores of SCL and sleep quality inventory scale were similar in the two groups before experiment. The fasting blood glucose (FBG) and 2-hour postprandial glucose when hospitalization were comparable between the two groups (p > 0.05). The emotion was obviously ameliorated in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in the exercise therapy group after exercise, and the SCL score was 135.83 +/- 24.68, significantly lower than that in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in the control group (152.99 +/- 26.56) (t = 2.59, p < 0.05). The sleep of the type 2 diabetes mellitus patients was remarkably improved in the exercise therapy group after exercise, and the total score of sleep quality was 3.38 +/- 0.69, significantly lower than that in the control group (5.02 +/- 0.86) (t = 3.88, p < 0.01). The levels of FBG and 2-hour postprandial glucose after exercise were significantly lower in the exercise therapy group (6.30 +/- 1.32, 7.80 +/- 1.44 mmol/L) than in the control group (7.75 +/- 1.81, 9.51 +/- 1.86 mmol/L) (t = 3.06, 3.23, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Exercise therapy has positive influence on emotion and sleep quality of type 2 diabetic patients, besides its effect in lowering the level of blood glucose.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher