INTRODUCTION: Middle Eastern immigrants exhibit high levels of physical inactivity and are at an increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. The primary aim of this study was to examine the changes in objectively assessed physical activity levels following a culturally adapted lifestyle intervention program. The secondary aim was to examine the association between objectively assessed physical activity and insulin sensitivity. STUDY DESIGN: RCT conducted over 4 months in 2015. PARTICIPANTS: Iraqi immigrants residing in Malmo, Sweden, exhibiting one or more risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. INTERVENTION: The intervention group (n = 50) was offered a culturally adapted lifestyle intervention comprising seven group sessions including a cooking class. The control group (n = 46) received usual care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Raw accelerometry data were processed by validated procedures and daily mean physical activity intensity, vector magnitude high-pass filtered (VM-HPF), was inferred. Further inferences into the number of hours/day spent in sedentary (VM-HPF < 48 milli-Gs (mGs) where G = 9.8 m/sec2) and light- (48 to < 163 mGs); moderate- (163 to < 420 mGs); and vigorous-intensity (>= 420 mGs) activities were also calculated (year of analysis was 2016 to 2017). RESULTS: No difference was observed between the two groups in terms of change over time in VM-HPF. There was a significant increase in the number of hours/day spent in light intensity physical activity in the intervention group compared with the control group (beta = 0.023, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.045, p = 0.037). The intervention group also increased the time spent in sedentary activities, with the highest VM-HPF (36 to < 48 mGs) within the sedentary behavior (B = 0.022, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.042, p = 0.03). Higher VM-HPF was significantly associated with a higher insulin sensitivity index (beta = 0.014, 95% CI 0.0004 to 0.025, p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: The findings favor the culturally adapted intervention approach for addressing low physical activity levels among Middle Eastern immigrants. Replacing sedentary time with light-intensity activities could be an achievable goal and will have potential beneficial effects for diabetes prevention among this sedentary group of immigrants. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01420198.

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

• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher