Exercise assessment and prescription in patients with type 2 diabetes in the private and home care setting: clinical recommendations from AXXON (Physical Therapy Association Belgium)

Abstract

In the care of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), exercise therapy is considered a cornerstone. Official position statements describe the need and effect of exercise therapy in T2DM patients, which training modalities to select and how to increase medical safety. However, the application of these guidelines in the private and home care physical therapy setting might be difficult. Physical therapists working in private and home care settings are often limited in terms of equipment and room. It thus remains to be described for these physical therapists how to execute a valid pre-participation screening and how to increase the medical safety and clinical effectiveness of exercise training in T2DM patients in presence of these limitations. Physical therapists will however be confronted more often with T2DM patients in the near future because of the increasing prevalence of this disease. In this clinical recommendation, a systematic, effective, and feasible approach for pre-participation screening and implementation of exercise intervention in T2DM patients, specifically in the private and home care physical therapy setting, is provided. Hereby, physical therapists in private and home care settings are better capable to prescribe clinically effective and medically safe exercise interventions for T2DM patients.