Effect of aerobic exercise on quality of life in population with diabetic peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetes: a single blind, randomized controlled trial

To evaluate the effect of 8-week moderate intensity aerobic (heart-rate reserve 40-60 %) exercise on neuropathy quality of life in type 2 diabetes. A single blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial was carried out in a tertiary setting. People with type 2 diabetes were eligible for the study if they had clinical neuropathy which was defined by a minimum score of seven on the Michigan diabetic neuropathy score. Following which, the patients were randomly assigned to an 8-week program by a computer-generated random number tables to intervention or control group. Repeated measure analysis of variance was used for data analysis (p < 0.05 was considered significant). There were 47 participants in the control group and 40 participants in the study group after randomization but 37 from the control group and 29 from the intervention group completed the final analysis. The two groups had a significant difference, pre-post intervention in scores of pain (F = 7, p = 0.01), sensory symptoms (F = 4.60, p = 0.04), restricted activities of daily living (F = 4.97, p = 0.03), disruptions in social relationships (F = 5.43, p = 0.02), specific impact on quality of life (F = 9.28, p < 0.001) overall quality of life (F = 28.72, p < 0.001), and total score (F = 31.10, p < 0.001). Degrees of freedom for all the components were 1, 62. Moderate intensity aerobic exercise is cornerstone in improving the quality of life of individuals with peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetes.