Researchers have said women who engaged in at least 150 min/week of aerobic activity and at least 60 min/week of muscle-strengthening activities had the most substantial risk reduction compared with inactive women.
In this week's research, Anders Grontved (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark) and colleagues prospectively followed up 99,316 middle-aged and older women for 8 years from the Nurses' Health Study ([NHS] 2000-2008) and Nurses' Health Study II ([NHSII] 2001-2009) who did not have diabetes at baseline, and determined whether their weekly time spent performing resistance exercise, lower intensity muscular conditioning exercises (yoga, stretching, toning), and aerobic moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reported at baseline and in 2004/2005 was associated wit h a reduced risk of new onset of diabetes.
During the 705,869 person years of follow-up, 3,491 women developed type 2 diabetes. They found that resistance exercise and lower intensity muscular conditioning exercises were both independently associated with a reduced risk for diabetes, even after adjusting for aerobic activity and many other potential confounding factors.
The study has been published in journal PLOS Medicine.
