Lifestyle Parameters in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus and in the General Adult Population—Trends over Five Years: Results of the Austrian National Health Interview Series

Abstract

Background: Not smoking, performing >150 min of aerobic physical activity (PA) and muscle strengthening exercises/week, and consuming >5 portions of fruit and vegetables/day are lifestyle recommendations for both the general population and people with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: A total of 15,771 and 15,461 persons from the Austrian Health Interview Surveys 2014 and 2019, respectively, including 4.9% and 6.0% of people with DM, were analysed in terms of their smoking, PA, and nutritional behaviours. Logistic regression models were performed for the lifestyle factors, adjusted for socio-demographic and health-related factors. Adjusted interactions between the survey year and DM on the lifestyle factors were computed. Results: The proportions of smokers were 23.9% and 20.2%, of people complying with the PA recommendations were 24.9% and 21.4%, and with fruit and vegetables recommendations were 7.1% and 5.5%, respectively, with significantly lower proportions of smokers and persons complying with the PA recommendations among people with DM. The fully adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for people with DM were 1.09 (0.94–1.26), 1.44 (1.23–1.69), and 0.90 (0.71–1.13) for smoking, not complying with PA recommendations, and not complying with fruit and vegetables recommendations, respectively. The proportion of people complying with PA recommendations decreased to a greater extent (p < 0.001) in people with DM (16.5% to 8.3%) compared to people without DM (25.3% to 22.3%). Conclusion: Diabetogenic lifestyle behaviours increased in the general Austrian population in recent years, which was especially true for people with DM regarding PA.