Effects of exercise on reducing diabetes risk in Korean women according to menopausal status

Abstract

Background: Exercise and estrogen play key roles in preventing diabetes and obesity. Women’s risk of diabetes could increase due to the loss of the protective effect of estrogen after menopause. Therefore, we investigated the relationship of the intensity and frequency of exercise with diabetes risk in Korean women.Methods: Hazard ratios (HRs) for the development of diabetes were analyzed in 926,807 premenopausal and 1,188,346 postmenopausal women without diabetes over the age of 40 who underwent the Korean National Health Examination in 2009 and were followed up until 2018. The number of days of physical activity according to exercise intensity and metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week (MET-min/wk) were calculated.Results: In total, 38,096 premenopausal (4.1%) and 120,605 postmenopausal (10.2%) women were newly diagnosed with diabetes. Regardless of menopausal history, the risk of diabetes was significantly lower in groups with higher MET-min/wk than in sedentary participants (0 MET-min/wk, reference), although this effect disappeared in postmenopausal women with the highest level of MET-min/wk (MET-min/wk ≥1,500) after adjusting for all variables (HR, 1.0; 95% confidence interval, 0.97–1.02). Participants who exercised for more than 1 day per week had a significantly lower risk of diabetes, regardless of the intensity. However, this benefit was lost in women with near-daily exercise (≥6 days/wk).Conclusions: Exercise was effective in preventing diabetes in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. A moderate amount of exercise should be actively encouraged to lower the risk of diabetes in women, especially after menopause, while simultaneously considering the insignificant benefits of excessive exercise.