Lifestyle in general and particularly health enhancing physical activity is known to be an important component in the prevention and therapy of type 2 diabetes mellitus.To gain substantial health benefits a minimum of 150 min of moderate or vigorous intense aerobic physical activity and muscle strengthening activities per week are needed. Additionally, inactivity should be recognised as health hazard and prolonged episodes of sitting should be avoided.Exercise in particular is not only useful in improving glycaemia by lowering insulin resistance and positively affect insulin secretion, but to reduce cardiovascular risk. The positive effect of training correlates directly with the amount of fitness gained and lasts only as long as the fitness level is sustained. The effect of exercise is independent of age and gender. It is reversible and reproducible.Supervised exercise classes are well known to be attractive for adults to reach a sufficient level of health enhancing physical activity. The potential of regional, standardised exercise programmes could have been shown, although existing barriers to entry must be reduced. To tackle this public health challenge and based on the large evidence of exercise referral and prescription the Austrian Diabetes Associations aims to implement the position of a "physical activity adviser" in multi-professional diabetes care.
Keywords: Cardiovascular risk; Health enhancing physical activity; Physical activity counselling; Standardised exercise programme.