Effectiveness of Concurrent Resistance and Aerobic Exercise on Glycaemic Control and Quality of Life in Juvenile Diabetes Children

Juvenile diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high plasma levels of glucose resulting from defect in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. In juvenile DM autoantibodies of oneself attack Beta cells of pancreas which inhibits the synthesis of insulin from pancreas. Type 1 / Juvenile DM is a insulin dependent DM where there is absolute or no insulin production caused by autoimmune beta cell destruction in the pancreas. It usually occurs in children or adolescents therefore it is named as Juvenile DM When the glycemia is not under control children experience severe complication like Diabetic ketoacidosis, diabetic neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, heart and blood vessel diseases.

Exercise has a direct positive effect on glycaemic control by promoting insulin secretion from beta pancreatic cells and by increasing skeletal muscle glucose uptake. Exercise promotes glucose uptake both acutely and overtime through the contraction mediated and insulin stimulated pathways therefore moderate to vigorous daily exercises can improve blood glucose management in patients with Juvenile DM Many families do not follow the recommendations that children and adolescents should spend in 60min or more of physical activity daily. Majority of young adults do not achieve physical fitness goals, especially in juvenile diabetes children there are many contributing factors like maintaining stable blood glucose levels before during and after exercise and also the fear of hypoglycaemia, therapist can play an important role in assisting families with these challenges as physical activity benefits with managing diabetes by improving glycaemic control, general health management and psychological well being.

Previous clinical trials have been conducted which provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of concurrent training for duration ranging from 12 weeks up to 32 weeks and these studies did not encourage overall body training. As there are no supporting studies which have intervened exercise prescription for children with juvenile diabetes in Karnataka and India, hence the purpose of the study arises to study the effectiveness of concurrent resistance and aerobics training using Peds QL Diabetes Module for a period of 8 weeks in children aged between 8 to 16 years with Juvenile diabetes while monitoring their glucose throughout the intervention under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner and to see the improvement in quality of life of juvenile diabetic population. This study can encourage physical activity in children with T1DM and improve the quality of living with the disease.