Effect of electrical stimulation in lower extremity as physical exercise in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a long-term illness that affects the patient's quality of life and requires substantial health care costs. Lifestyle related to physical exercise is one of the causes of the increasing prevalence of this disease. However, not all T2DM patients can perform physical exercise because very weak physical conditions such as elderly, spinal cord injury or diabetic secondary complications can be contraindicated when physical exercise performed. The aim of this study is to use electrical stimulation (ES) as an alternative way for physical exercise in controlling blood glucose level. METHODS: The provision of ES to lower extremity muscles was given for 30 minutes in the intervention group. Blood glucose samples were taken before and after the ES intervention. The data collected was statistically analyzed by using paired T-test and expressed in mean±standard error. RESULTS: The ES intervention decrease significantly from 193.03±5.740 mg/dL to 170.66±5.200 mg/dL (p≤.001) in the last session. CONCLUSION: ES can be proposed to assist patients who can not perform physical exercise to control blood glucose level.