EFFECTS OF HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING ON GLYCAEMIC CONTROL AND ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS IN TYPE 2 DIABETES PATIENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

Abstract

Objective/Aims: To review the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) on glycaemic and anthropometric measurements in Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) patients. Background: T2D is a prevalent chronic disease globally with continuously growing numbers and age of diagnoses getting younger. This chronic disease is a component of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) which includes obesity, poor lipid levels and hypertension. Reviews conducted have explored the effectiveness of HIIT on HbA1c and glucose levels but none with strong meta-analysis evidence on anthropometric measures and lipid levels. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted on seven databases (CINAHL, Scopus, ProQuest, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed and Web of Science) to find published and ongoing Randomised Control Trials (RCT) on HIIT among T2D patients from January 2000 to September 2019. Papers were included if they measured BMI and HbA1c of patients with T2D. Studies were reviewed following the guidelines in the “Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Interventions”. RevMan 5.3 software was utilised for meta-analyses of the following outcomes: HbA1c, BMI, Total Triglycerides, HDL, SBP and DBP. Results: A total of 3136 records were yielded from searches and ultimately 14 trials were chosen for meta-analysis. Two meta-analyses were conducted for each outcome to compare the impact of HIIT to usual care, and HIIT to other exercise interventions. Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that while HIIT has a significant impact on improving primary and secondary outcomes in T2D patients, it is not significantly more effective than other exercises except for HbA1c. However, HIIT produces same health outcomes as other exercises in a shorter exercise duration and may be more suitable for T2D patients who have busy schedules and jobs with less physical activity.