Examining the levels of occupational physical activity and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

Occupational physical activity has been previously shown to have a protective benefit against developing type 2 diabetes. The study presented here investigated diabetes risk in two contrasting workplaces in South Wales. Two-hundred and four steel workers (SW) and 83 local health board employees (LHB) participated in this study. Demographic and anthropometric data, blood pressure, smoking status, physical activity levels, and family and medical histories were recorded and diabetes risk calculated using the QDiabetes® algorithm. A higher proportion of SW were assessed to be either physically "active" or "moderately active" compared with the LHB (93.6% versus 67.5%; P<0.001). However, the SW were observed to have larger BMI values (29.0 kg/m² [standard deviation, 4.4 kg/m²] versus 27.5 kg/m² [3.0 kg/m²]; /=0.004) and a greater proportion of them observed to be obese (38.7% versus 22.9%; P=0.01). Almost one-third of all workers assessed were predicted to be at either "intermediate" or "high" 10-year risk of developing diabetes. However, despite the higher BMI values observed in the SW, predicted risk of diabetes was comparable between workforces (QDiabetes, 6.3% [2.5%] versus 6.8% [2.2%]; P=0.494), thus suggesting that routine physical activity at work mitigates against the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.