Promoting physical activity in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review of systematic reviews.

Abstract

There is a large amount of studies about interventions for promoting physical activity (PA) in persons with type 2 diabetes (T2D) as well as several systematic reviews referring to these studies. The objective of this contribution is to provide a systematic review of these systematic reviews. PubMed, PsychInfo and the Cochrane Library were searched for systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses regarding interventions for promoting PA in persons with T2D. The individual reviews and the relationships between the reviews were analysed. Eighteen reviews were included. Seventeen of these reviews contained references to included trials, amounting to 113 trials in total. Five of the reviews addressed PA interventions in general; six addressed specific devices for delivering the intervention; five addressed specific approaches for giving the participants feedback about their outcomes; and two addressed specific therapeutic approaches. Only 14 cross-references were found. Giving feedback about outcomes and helping people to integrate PA in their daily lives seem to be the most effective intervention components. Basing intervention development on theories seems helpful. Interventions should give feedback about outcomes and help to integrate PA in daily life. Intervention development should be theory-based.