Functional Exercise Capacity and Quality of Life in Type II Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Abstract

Assessment of physical capacity is of much interest in people with diabetes mellitus in order to correctly prescribe an exercise program for these patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the functional exercise capacity and the quality of life in a sample of patients with type II diabetes mellitus. For this cross-sectional study, 20 consecutive type II diabetic women and 20 age and sex matched healthy controls were recruited. The physical capacity was assessed using the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). There were no significant differences between groups in terms of anthropometric characteristics. Mean age in patients' group was 62.35±5.21 years and in control group 61.82±4.89 years. In the 6MWT, the distance covered by the diabetic patients was 498.56±58.3 meters, significantly shorter than that covered by the control group (601.34±42.5 meters) (p<0.05). The AQoL-4D scores were significantly lower in patients' group compared to controls (0.297±0.089 vs 0.778±0.091). The