Diabetes-Related Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards Exercise and Its Benefits Among Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Nokuthula Mtshali () and Takshita Sookan-Kassie
Additional contact information
Nokuthula Mtshali: Discipline of Biokinetics, Exercise and Leisure Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa
Takshita Sookan-Kassie: Discipline of Biokinetics, Exercise and Leisure Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: Regular exercise has been shown to have a positive effect on the health outcomes of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); however, it is still underutilized in developing countries. This study investigated diabetes-related knowledge, attitudes, and practice toward exercise and its benefits among individuals with T2DM. A total of one hundred and ninety-nine participants (male = 21.6% and female = 78.4%) with T2DM, aged between 18 and 75, (43.77 SD± 14.78) years, participated in the study. A validated diabetes-related knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaire, evaluated by true/false or unsure, was utilized in the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics analysis was used to analyze data with the significance set at p < 0.05. The results demonstrated poor diabetes-related knowledge of exercise ( p < 0.001). The majority of the study participants, 163 (81.90%) with T2DM, did not know that physical activity and exercise are different. About 158 (70.40%) of the study participants felt that their regular work was an adequate substitution for exercise. More than 50% of the study participants demonstrated a positive practice towards exercise and its benefits towards T2DM ( p < 0.001). The majority of the study participants reported poor knowledge and a negative attitude toward diabetes. However, their diabetes-related practices were satisfactory.

Keywords: knowledge; attitude; practice; physical activity; type 2 diabetes mellitus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/11/1529/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/11/1529/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:11:p:1529-:d:1523466

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().