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Stephanie Nguyen
Research Summary
Prof. Galves
Biology 1615 Lab
11/12/14

Introduction
There are many diseases in our world today that take away the lives of many people with
no chance of a cure. On the other hand, there are still some diseases that can potentially be
prevented, cured, and maintained. Type 1 diabetes is one that would fit into this category. Type 1
diabetes is a disease where ones pancreas is not able to produce insulin making it difficult to
regulate blood sugar. Fortunately, diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes does not necessarily mean a lifelong journey of always feeling sick and miserable. There are several different things a person can
do to still keep their body healthy and live a long life, including staying physically active.
Although, many times people with Type 1 diabetes do not follow the suggested guidelines on
sufficient exercise and healthy eating habits. In a research article called Attitudes and Barriers to
Exercise in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) and How Best to Address Them: A qualitative
Study, a group of highly educated researchers go through and explain their findings on why a lot
of people with TIDM dont take care of themselves the way they should in order to stay healthy.
The purpose of this research was to explore different barriers in the lives of people with the
disease, in order to hopefully find ways to increase physical activity.

Materials and Methods

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In this study, they used a two-step process. First they recruited patients who were admitted to
the Diabetes Unit of Selly Oak Hospital. How they did that was by talking to patients while they
waited for their appointments, and asked them if they would be interested in participating in their
study and what it had to offer. Also, clinicians would mention this study to their patients after
their appointment was through to see if they were interested as well. If they did take interest in
the study they would then be asked for contact information and be set up for the next step in the
process which was the interview. All interviews were kept anonymous and it was made sure that
there were no clinicians present during the interview. Doing it that way ensured the answers were
true and not influenced at all by them being there. A topic guide was used in the interview to ask
questions about what their current level of physical activity was, and about what kind of factors
are in their lives that keep them from exercising. They also explored different possible
interventions to help initiate an active lifestyle such as, using exercise diaries and talking about
their patients individual wants/needs.

Results
Out of 48 people who said they were interested, 32 were expected to show up for an
interview, and six did not respond or cancelled last minute. The groups of patients were both
male and female ranging from the ages of 21-62 years old. From data collected of each patient
put together, the researchers came up with three major themes and supporting themes based
around exercise. These three themes are physical activity and exercise behavior, barriers to
exercise, and facilitating and encouraging exercise. Within these three themes researchers found
that a lot of the patients only exercised about one to two times a week or not at all. The

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recommended target was to exercise for a minimum of 150 minutes per week. A large majority
of the patients were not reaching this goal and felt that it was impossible for them. The second
theme identifies four main barriers that keep people from exercise. These barriers are: Health and
Medical, Time, work, and lifestyle, Social and personal, and lastly, Environmental. In order to
help the patients overcome these barriers, they were asked about what they thought would help
them achieve their goals. Facilitators and motivators were both talked about so that the patients
knew about the advantages they had available to them, for example reduced admission to the
gym. They also talked about the benefits of exercise for the body and self-esteem. To encourage
exercise, three options to help increase physical activity were presented to the patients and they
were all able to input their thoughts on each.

Discussion
In the end, they actually compiled six main barriers to exercise including: lack of time, work
related factors, difficulties with access to facilities, lack of motivation, low confidence, weather,
and health specific barriers. In contrast, a group of factors that motivated patients to exercise
were also identified. A few of them had to do with the benefits of physical appearance, the
opportunity to interact with people at the gym, and help with time management. Overall, this
study had its strengths and weaknesses. What made this study unique was that it was the first
study done about what kept people with T1DM from exercising and what factors helped motivate
them to exercise. One disadvantage this study faced was that it only included participants from
one particular geographic area.

Bibliography
Lascar N, Kennedy A, Hancock B, Jenkins D, Andrews RC, et al. (2014) Attitudes and Barriers
to Exercise in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) and How Best to Address Them: A
Qualitative Study. PLoS ONE 9(9): e108019. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108019