The OPTIMISE your health study
This study is the first to rigorously examine the effects of reducing and breaking up sitting time on glycaemic control in office workers with type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies have shown that reducing and breaking up sitting time has beneficial effects on blood glucose control and insulin levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.
The NHMRC-funded OPTIMISE your health study will investigate whether a 18-month multi-component intervention, targeting reducing and breaking up sitting, can help improve glycaemic control in office workers with type 2 diabetes.
The study draws and builds on two main strands of research led by Professor David Dunstan. The first is the world-leading Stand Up Australia program of studies, which used similar interventions to show substantial reductions in sitting time (>1.3–16 hours a day) in general adult working populations.
The second is findings from laboratory studies at the Baker Institute, showing that substantial (39%) reductions in postprandial glucose (PPG; a significant contributor to overall glycaemic control (HbA1c)) can be acutely [1-day] achieved by reducing and interrupting prolonged sitting time.
“To date, all of the published trials describing the beneficial effects of breaking up sitting time on PPG have been restricted to acute exposure periods of between one and five days,” Professor Dunstan said.
“Given that almost all such acute experimental studies have been conducted in laboratory settings, there is a need to experimentally test whether these changes are possible within everyday life settings and over longer time periods.
“This is crucial for understanding the potential of this approach for clinical and public health translation.”
Professor Dunstan said OPTIMISE your health is a pragmatic trial of an intervention that has the potential for immediate real-world application.
The study specifically addresses new and emerging health threats as outlined in the NHMRC Strategic Direction 2015–16 to 2018–19: ‘address the social, environmental and community dimensions of health’, with prolonged sitting due to technological and economic changes being the case in point.
Click here for more information or to join the OPTIMISE study.