Effects of social support and physical environment factors on physical activity among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus among age between 40-65 years and > 65 years

Abstract

Social support and environmental factors have been associated with physical activity. These affect directly or indirectly on physical activity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of social support and environmental factors on physical activity among type 2 DM. This cross-sectional study was conducted in type 2 DM outpatients at Manchakiri hospital. Subjects were divided into two groups. One group consisted of 227 patients aged between 40 - 65 years, and the other group consisted of 51 patients aged more than 65 years. They were 4 questionnaires which used to interview the patients. The first questionnaire was used to collect demographic data, second questionnaire was used to ask about social support data, third questionnaire was used to ask about data on physical environment. The last questionnaire was the type 2 DM physical activity questionnaire which was a Thai short form version developed from an international physical activity questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the relationship between a physical activity with social support (family support, friend support) and environmental factors (residential density, access of facility, equipment supports). This study also controlled other basic factors which affect the main outcome and the results were reported in terms of adjusted odd ratio (aOR) with accepted p-values < 0.05. The results showed that fair and poor environmental factors were significantly associated with inactive physical activity in patients with type 2 DM ages between 40- 65 years with aOR of 3.81 (95%CI: 1.16-12.49, p-value< 0.05) and  aOR  of 5.33 (95%CI: 1.55-18.34, p-value< 0.05), respectively. However, there was no significant relationship between physical activity and social support. The finding of this study showed that physical activity in patients with type 2 DM was significantly associated with environmental factors.