Abstract
Regular and proper exercise behavior was part of a method to control blood sugar levels in type-2 diabetic patients. This research was aimed at studying the exercise behavior of type-2 diabetic patients residing in urban communities as well as studying the effect of exercise on their health condition and diabetic complications. Volunteers in this project included type-2 diabetic patients who had received medical treatment from BMA Health Service Center 12 from February to June 2006. All the volunteers first completed the personal questionnaire form and exercise behavior questionnaire form, and underwent blood testing, anthropometric measurements, and diabetic complications check-up. The study found that 75 of 203 volunteers (or 36.9%) had regular exercise behavior; while 128 of 203 volunteers (or 63.1%) refrained from performing regular exercise; however, only 42 of the 75 volunteers in the regular-exercise group were within the standard criteria for regular exercisers. The regular exercise group had lower fasting blood sugar and triglyceride levels than those of the non-exercise group, with the statistical significance being (p < 0.05), and tended to have a lower proportion of occurrences of diabetic complications than those in the non-exercise group. The result of this study indicates that diabetes patients residing in urban communities had a lower level of regular and proper exercise behavior. To solve this problem, the body of knowledge on proper exercise and patterns of exercise behavior modification must be taken into consideration.
