Abstract
Sports offer great benefits, improving health and reducing the risk of illnesses. This study’s aim was to investigate the prevalence of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus in football players compared to population based non-elite athlete control subjects. Initially 1100 male volunteers, (550) football players, and (550) population based non-elite athlete control subjects were interviewed. After socio-demographic and medical history analysis, 756 (378) nonsmoker male football players and (378) nonsmoker male control subjects were recruited. The control subjects were not involved in regular sports activities such as football, volleyball, badminton, cricket, hockey, and swimming. Participants with a known history of anemia, blood diseases, diabetes mellitus, and malignancy were excluded from the study. The mean age of football players was 31.80 ± 5.46 years, Body Mass Index (BMI) was 26.40 ± 2.08 (kg/m2), and the mean age of control subjects was 32.32 ± 4.37 years, and BMI was 26.66 ± 1.87 (kg/m2). The selected football players have been playing football for about 2 h a day, 3 days per week, and so the total mean duration of playing football was 1.08 years. American Diabetes Association (ADA) based criteria on Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) was used to investigate prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In football players the prevalence of prediabetes was 30 (7.93%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was 6 (1.59%) compared to population based matched non-elite athlete control subjects where the prediabetes was 71 (18.78%) and T2DM was 89 (23.54%) (p = 0.001). Among football players there was a 7-fold decrease in T2DM compared to control subjects. Football recreational activities markedly reduce the prevalence of prediabetes and T2DM. The study findings demonstrate the benefits of football and other such sport activities and emphasize the urgent need for promoting football based physical activities as a physiological preventive strategy against the globally growing diabetes epidemic.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health challenge associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic burden [1]
The prevalence of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the football players was significantly decreased with duration of playing football (Figure 2)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). This is the first study added in the literature to investigate the prevalence of prediabetes and T2DM among football players compared to population based non-elite athlete control subjects
Summary
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health challenge associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic burden [1]. In spite of advancements in biomedical sciences, DM is an incurable life-long disease [2]. The recent global prevalence of DM is 463 million; 374 million people are suffering from impaired glucose tolerance whereas 232 million people are unaware from the fact that they are suffering from the disease. 4.2 million deaths in the year 2019, 11,666 people per day, and 8.10 people per minute. The world health expenditure on diabetes is 760 billion $ [3]. Diabetes mellitus has a high priority rank on the international health agenda due to being a global pandemic and a deathtrap to human health and worldwide economies [4].
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