Can Breaks from Sitting Improve Glucose Control and Vascular Health in People with Type 1 Diabetes?

Sedentary lifestyles significantly increase morbidity and mortality, with prolonged periods of sitting detrimental to diabetes management and risk of complications.

Although the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Diabetes UK recommend and encourage all people with diabetes to participate in physical activity (PA), 80% of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) do not meet PA recommendations.

For most inactive people, exercise is often viewed as daunting and unachievable and its promotion can often discourage people from becoming active.

However, reducing sedentariness through less intensive PA is viewed by many as more achievable and a logical starting point.

Recommendations advocate people with diabetes interrupt prolonged periods of sitting with short, frequent low intensity activity breaks because this has shown to improve glucose control and vascular health.

However, the evidence underpinning these recommendations remain preliminary and are focussed on those with type 2 diabetes.

Resultantly, there is a lack of information about how to incorporate PA safely into daily life and whether reducing sedentariness affects glucose levels in T1D.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to characterise the impact of frequent activity breaks in sitting on 48-hour glycaemia and parameters of vascular health in people with T1D.