Comparison of Effect of Exercise on Insulin Sensitivity of Overweight Normoglycemic Offspring of T2DM Parents and Non-Diabetic Parents

Background: The primary causes of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are largely unknown but insulin insensitivity has been reported to be a risk factor for the T2DM through the alteration of insulin sensitivity pattern. There is paucity of studies on the effect of exercise on occurrence of T2DM in offspring of diabetic parents in our population. Objectives: This study was designed to assess the effect of exercise on insulin sensitivity (IS) on offspring of T2DM parents compared with offspring of non-diabetic parents. Design: This study involved 60 offspring of T2DM parents attending University College Hospital, Ibadan and 60 offspring of non-diabetic parents who are undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups. Each participant followed a protocol of graded exercise using ‘‘tummy trimmer’’ everyday spending 45 minutes daily for 24 weeks. Blood samples were obtained after an overnight fasting for determination of insulin sensitivity using standard methods at baseline and at 24 weeks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic and student t test with significance at p<0.05). Results: The most populated aged group was 26 to 35 years of which 47.3% (n=26) were OODP and 52.7% (n=29) were OONDP. However, all subjects were overweight with mean BMI of OODP and OONDP (29.30kg/m2±0.71 versus 26.37kg/m2±0.88) p=.0.035. Significantly, total insulin sensitivity between the two groups increased after 6 months of exercise p=0.045(3.36µ /l±0.24 versus 3.48µ /l±0.24). Conclusions: Male subjects tend to have higher insulin sensitivity than females.