Diabetes diagnosis and exercise initiation among older Americans

Objective: To determine whether exercise participation increased following a new diagnosis of diabetes using a sample of U.S. individuals aged 50 and over who did not report exercise prior to diagnosis. Methods: We used data from the 2004-2010 Health and Retirement Study in a pre-post study design. Individuals newly-diagnosed with diabetes (N. = 635) were propensity score matched to a comparison group with no diabetes. Results: In the year following a reported diagnosis, 35.7 (95 confidence interval 32.0 to 39.5) of those newly diagnosed with diabetes initiated exercise as compared with 31.4 (95 confidence interval 27.9 to 35.1) for the matched cohort with no diabetes, with a between-group difference of 4.3 percentage points (95 confidence interval -0.9 to 9.4). Among individuals with fewer health risk factors at baseline, the between-group difference was 15.6 percentage points (95 confidence interval 1.58 to 29.5). Conclusion: Over 35 of persons with a new diagnosis of diabetes initiated moderate or vigorous exercise in the year following their diagnosis. Among individuals with fewer health risk factors at baseline, those newly-diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to begin exercise than those without diabetes. 2014 Elsevier Inc.