Physical Activity Prescription Organization

Without any medication, the level of fasting plasma glucose achieved treatment target (7 mmol/L) after 4 weeks and sustained during the treatment course; HbA1cwas significantly reduced. This encouraging preliminary results have been presented EASD 51^st annual meeting.

Diabetes is one of the biggest global challenges with an estimation of 171 million patients in 2010 (WHO). In Vietnam, the rate has doubled in recent 10 years and approximately 5.3% of the population has been diagnosed with diabetes. Healthy lifestyle, especially sufficient physical activity level (150 minutes aerobics exercise per week is recommended by WHO) is beneficial to prevent and control diabetes. The effectiveness of physical activity among Vietnamese diabetic patients has not been studied yet. In 2014, Dr. Tâm and co-workers carried out a research to answer this question and it was lately chosen as a presentation at the annual EASD meeting from 14 to 18 September 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden.

		More about the first author of the abstract: Dr. Nguyễn Ngọc Tâm, MSc, graduated from  Hanoi Medical University (2010) and is now working as a physician at  the Outpatient department of Vietnam National Geriatric hospital in Hanoi as well as a lecturer at the Geriatric Department of Hanoi Medical University since 2014. She is collaborating in research with among others Dr. Vu Thanh Huyen with the same affiliation and with Prof. Carl Johan Sundberg from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dr. Tam at the EASD meeting

This research aims to assess the effectiveness of physical activity on prescription in type 2 diabetic patients. Newly diagnosed T2D patients are randomized in two groups: one group of patients receives a 12 week - program of individualized physical activity (IPA group) and another group of patients receive standard care (SC group) according to WHO guidelines. The patients who receive program of IPA are guided to use pedometer and write diary of physical activity and go to see doctor each week. The preliminary result with a still limited number of patients is very encouraging, individualized physical activity of sufficient frequency, duration and intensity shows a promising improvement of glycemia of drug naïve type 2 diabetic patients. In IPA group, fasting plasma glucose achieved treatment target (7 mmol/L) after 4 weeks and sustained during the treatment course; HbA1c levels, a marker for average blood glucose levels over time,were significantly reduced. The research group headed by Dr. Huyen at the National Geriatrics hospital in Hanoi, expects that this research study will involve more participants and that future research will clarify mechanisms underlying the association between physical activity and diabetes and also other non-communicable diseases in Vietnamese patients.

The prospect of physical activity and physical activity prescription (PAP) in Vietnam

Physical activity, along with other good lifestyle has been used widely in Scandinavia, New Zealand, Australia, the US and many other countries as the corner stone for patients with diabetes, overweight and hypertension. When mentioning about physical activity in Vietnam, Tam emphasized that more efforts should be taken to promote this healthy lifestyle. Tam, “We should conduct more research to prove its effectiveness which can convince Vietnamese patients. Besides, identifying the appropriate method to prescribe and follow up is very crucial as the Vietnamese doctor has very limited time for each patient. In Sweden nurses can prescribe PA, but this is not the case in Vietnam. Last but not least, there is a need to have general recommendations for Vietnamese people.” 

Tam said that walking was the most common activity among the IPA group to increase the PA. Tam suggested two feasible solutions to promote physical activity in Vietnam, namely including establishing more exercise clubs and cooperating with other preventive centers to build up active lifestyle among patients with pre-diabetes and diabetes. Meanwhile, PAP also needs to be launched due to its strong benefits for these patients. 

Do Hai Dang