Recommendations from Diabetes UK’s 2022 diabetes and physical activity workshop

Aims

To describe the process and outputs of a workshop convened to identify key priorities for future research in the area of diabetes and physical activity and provide recommendations to researchers and research funders on how best to address them.

Methods

A one-day research workshop was conducted, bringing together researchers, people living with diabetes, healthcare professionals, and members of staff from Diabetes UK to identify and prioritise recommendations for future research into physical activity and diabetes.

Results

Workshop attendees prioritised four key themes for further research: (i) Better understanding of the physiology of exercise in all groups of people: in particular, what patient metabolic characteristics influence or predict the physiological response to physical activity, and the potential role of physical activity in beta cell preservation; (ii) Designing physical activity interventions for maximum impact; (iii) Promoting sustained physical activity across the life course ; (iv) Designing physical activity studies for groups with multiple long-term conditions.

Conclusions

This paper outlines recommendations to address the current gaps in knowledge related to diabetes and physical activity and calls on the research community to develop applications in these areas and funders to consider how to stimulate research in these areas.