Physical Activity In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: The Case For Objective Measurement In Routine Clinical Care

To perform at least 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week is a major aim in type 2 diabetes treatment (1), but actual measurements are not routinely performed in clinical practice. We questioned whether subjective assessment of physical activity is accurate to guide lifestyle advice.We compared the results of the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health–Enhancing Physical Activity (SQUASH) (2) and the Fitbit Flex accelerometer (3) in 50 patients with type 2 diabetes included in the DIAbetes and LifEstyle Cohort Twente (DIALECT) trial, which was approved by the local institutional review board METC-Twente (NL57219.044.16) (4).Patients wore the Fitbit for 7 consecutive days and were instructed to maintain their usual activities. Raw Fitbit data (steps/min) were organized into ready variables by an algorithm written in MATLAB (MathWorks, Natick, MA). MVPA was defined as ≥95 steps/min (5). Patients maintained a diary regarding activities not detected by the Fitbit …