Exercise Timing and Gestational Diabetes

University of Alberta

Status: Completed

Conditions: Diabetes; Diabete Mellitus; Pre-diabetes; Pregnancy Related; Type 2 Diabetes; Exercise

Treatments: Behavioral: 10-minute; Behavioral: 30-minute walking intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05256615

Pro00097525

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study is to understand if the timing of exercise around food intake can help improve blood sugar management in pregnant individuals with diabetes.

Full description

Between 3 - 20% of women develop gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy, a condition in which blood sugar control is poor and can have serious health effects for both mom and baby. Women with GDM are at elevated risk of developing dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy and type 2 diabetes later in life. GDM also puts the baby at an increased risk of excessive birth weight, low blood sugar at birth, and future risk of type 2 diabetes.

The 2019 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy recommends that women be physically active for at least 150 minutes spread over at least 3 days each week. Managing high blood sugars with exercise improves outcomes for mom and baby; however, optimal timing of exercise has not been investigated.

The goal of this study is to determine if exercising after meals in shorter bouts is more effective at controlling post-meal blood sugars than exercising in larger amounts between meals.

This is a fully remote study; participants will receive all necessary equipment in the mail and all interactions with the researcher will be done via phone, video call and email.

The study will recruit 30 pregnant women diagnosed (or not) with diabetes (gestational, pre-, or type 2 diabetes mellitus) after 20 weeks' gestation to participate in this 2-week study. Following a 2 day baseline period, they will be randomly assigned to: 1) walk for 10 minutes after each meal (SHORT), or 2) walk for 30 minutes once per day at any time except in the hour after eating (LONG) for 5 days. Following a 2- day washout period, women will then complete the alternative exercise protocol for an additional 5 days. Women will wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor to track blood sugars, and an accelerometer to track activity patterns (e.g., compliance to the intervention) for seven consecutive days. The Investigators hypothesize that women who walk for 10 minutes after each meal will have a blunted rise in blood sugar following food intake, compared to the women in the 30- minute walking group. Findings from this novel study may help better treat GDM, improving lifelong health for moms and babies around the world.

Enrollment: 41 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 45 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• at least 18 years of age
• singleton pregnancies
• healthy pregnant individuals or diagnosed with gestational, pre- or Type 2 diabetes

Exclusion criteria

• less than 18 years of age
• presents with contraindications to prenatal exercise (e.g., preeclampsia)
• multiple pregnancies (i.e. twins, triplets etc.)
• currently taking Metformin

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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41 participants in 2 patient groups

Diabetes

Experimental group

Description:

Participants recruited to this arm have been clinically diagnosed with either gestational, pre- or type 2 diabetes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: 30-minute walking intervention

Behavioral: 10-minute

Non-diabetes

Experimental group

Description:

Participants recruited to this arm of the study do not have gestational, pre- or type 2 diabetes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: 30-minute walking intervention

Behavioral: 10-minute