Even Few Workouts a Week Could Lower Death Risk for People with Diabetes: Study Suggests

A new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine found that regular active physical activity is associated with a lower risk of both all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality in people with diabetes compared with those with diabetes who are physically inactive.

The study demonstrated the importance of any physical activity for people with diabetes.

Researchers studied data from 51,650 adults with self-reported diabetes who participated in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) between 1997 and 2018. Current guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) distributed across a minimum of three days. Participants were categorized into four activity patterns: inactive (no reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity); insufficiently active (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity less than 150 minutes per week); weekend warrior (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 150 or more minutes per week across one to two sessions); and regularly active (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 150 or more minutes per week across at least three sessions).

The researchers found that insufficiently active, weekend warrior, and regularly active participants had lower risks for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared to inactive participants. Weekend warriors and regularly active participants had 21% and 17% lower all-cause mortality risk and 33% and 19% lower risks of cardiovascular mortality, respectively, compared with inactive participants. There were fewer differences by cancer mortality compared with physical inactivity.

Reference: Zhiyuan Wu, Chen Sheng, Zheng Guo, Yulu Zheng, Deqiang Zheng, Xia Li, Xiuhua Guo, Haibin Li. Association of Weekend Warrior and Other Physical Activity Patterns With Mortality Among Adults With Diabetes. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2025; DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-25-00640