Iran Diabetes Research Roadmap (IDRR) Study; Diabetes and Exercise: A Review Article

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to provide comprehensive analysis of research output in the field of diabetes and exercise in Iran.

Method: Search process of the present study was a part of search strategy of Iran Diabetes Research Roadmap (IDRR) study. All publications of Iranian authors about diabetes and exercise in national (SID, IranMedex, and Magiran) and international journals (PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus) up to 2015 were reviewed. After screening and adjusting for duplicates, 180 studies were remained and categorized by subject category, methodology, WHO classification and NHMRC criteria.

Results: Among 180obtained articles, in term of subject area mostnumber of documents was about the type of sports (55%) followed by social aspect of exercise and physiologic effects. Aerobic exercise (52.5%) was the most common exercises studied. Moreover, overall trend of publications was relatively increasing during the study period. More than half of the papers were randomized clinical trial (RCT) (51.11%).

Conclusion: Although trend of papers subjects was relatively scattered, most of exercise studies in Iran were about the type of sports with more focus on aerobic exercises in patients with type 2 diabetes. Future research in this field should be directed more toward cohorts and systematic reviews that provide high level of evidence. However, quality assessment for all studies should be carried out in future research.