Background: Online exercise interventions can improve physical outcomes. Online supervised exercise program is more effective than unsupervised exercise program.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of an online supervised exercise program on fasting blood glucose, body mass index (BMI), resilience and quality of life in older people with diabetes.
Methods: This parallel group randomised controlled study included 70 older patients with Type 2 diabetes. Participants were divided into online supervised and unsupervised exercise training groups. Participants in the online-supervised exercise group were given an online-supervised exercise program 3 days a week for 6 weeks. Personal Information Form, Short Resilience Scale and Quality of Life Scale in Older People were used to collect data. In addition, fasting blood sugar BMI and values were measured.
Results: According to the results of our study, while there was no significant difference between the pre-and post-training scores of the supervised and unsupervised groups on the Psychological Resilience Scale and Quality of Life Scale, it was observed that there was a significant difference in both groups according to time (p < .05). When the difference between the scores of the groups before and after the training was analysed according to time, a significant difference was observed between the online-supervised and unsupervised exercise groups (p < .05). In addition, it was seen that there was a significant difference in the fasting blood sugar and BMI results of the online-supervised exercise group according to time (p < .05).
Conclusions: Online supervised exercise program decreases fasting blood sugar and BMI, increases psychological resilience and quality of life of older patients with Type 2 diabetes.
Implication for practice: Online supervised exercise program may be an additional treatment that provides benefits for older people with diabetes who cannot participate in clinical-based rehabilitation programs.
Keywords: older people; online exercise; psychological resilience; quality of life; supervised exercise; type 2 diabetes.
© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Older People Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.