Walking decreased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality in older adults with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the association of walking with mortality in persons with type 2 diabetes compared to those with normal glucose tolerance.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

This prospective study included community-dwelling adults from the Rancho Bernardo Study aged 50-90 years in 1984-86 who had type 2 diabetes (n=347) or normal glucose tolerance (n=1,317). During the 10-year follow up, Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to model time until death from all causes (n=538), coronary heart disease (CHD, n=143), other cardiovascular disease (non-CHD CVD, n=138), and other causes (n=257) while adjusting for multiple potential confounders.

RESULTS

After adjusting for sex, age, smoking, body mass index, alcohol, exercise, history of CHD, and other covariates, adults with diabetes who walked > or =1 mile per day were half as likely to die from all causes combined (hazard ratio [HR]=0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.33, 0.88), and less than one-fifth as likely to die from non-CHD CVD (HR=0.19; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.86) compared to adults with diabetes who did not walk. Walking was also protective among adults with normal glucose tolerance (HR=0.55; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.96).

CONCLUSION

Results suggest walking > or =1 mile per day may provide strong protection from all-cause and non-CHD CVD mortality in older adults with diabetes.