Evaluation of physical activity among adults with diabetes mellitus from Sri Lanka

D Chathuranga Ranasinghe; Priyanga Ranasinghe; Ranil Jayawardena; David R Matthews; Prasad Katulanda

doi:10.1186/1755-7682-7-15

Evaluation of physical activity among adults with diabetes mellitus from Sri Lanka

Int Arch Med. 2014 Apr 4:7:15. doi: 10.1186/1755-7682-7-15. eCollection 2014.

Authors

D Chathuranga Ranasinghe¹, Priyanga Ranasinghe², Ranil Jayawardena³, David R Matthews⁴, Prasad Katulanda⁵

Affiliations

¹ Allied Health Sciences Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
² Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
³ Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁴ Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁵ Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK ; Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

We evaluated the patterns of physical activity (PA) and the prevalence of physical inactivity among Sri Lankan adults with diabetes mellitus. Data were collected as part of a wider cross-sectional national study on diabetes in Sri Lanka. PA during the past week was assessed using the short version of the IPAQ. Overall prevalence of physical inactivity was 13.9%. Females (3091 ± 2119) had a significantly higher mean weekly total MET minutes than males (2506 ± 2084) (p < 0.01). Inactivity of those residing in urban (17.2%) areas was higher than rural (12.6%) in all adults. Participants from Moor ethnicity were more inactive compared to others. Adults who were physically active had significantly low waist and hip circumferences, BMI and systolic blood pressure.

Keywords: Adults; Diabetes mellitus; Inactivity; Physical activity; Sri Lanka.