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Effect of type 2 diabetes on energy cost and preferred speed of walking

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Although walking is the most commonly recommended activity for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), these patients walk daily less than their healthy peers and adopt a lower self-selected speed. It has been suggested that gait alterations observed in this population could be responsible for a higher metabolic rate (MR) during walking. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare relationship between MR, the energy cost of walking per unit of distance (Cw) and self-selected walking speed in T2D patients and healthy individuals.

Methods

We measured metabolic and spatiotemporal parameters for 20 T2D patients and 20 healthy control subjects, while they walked on a treadmill at different speeds (0.50–1.75 m s−1) using a breath-by-breath gas analyzer and an inertial measurement unit, respectively.

Results

Net MR was 14.3% higher for T2D patients on average across all speeds, and they preferred to walk 6.8% slower at their self-selected compared with their non-diabetics counterparts (1.33 vs. 1.42 m s−1, respectively; p = 0.045). Both groups naturally walked at a self-selected speed close to their minimum gross Cw per distance, with similar values of minimum gross Cw (3.53 and 3.32 J kg−1 m−1 in T2D patients and control subjects, respectively).

Conclusion

When compared with healthy subjects, T2D patients walk with a higher MR at any given speed. Thus, the slower self-selected speed observed in T2D patients seems to correspond to the speed at which their gross energy cost per distance was minimized and allows T2D patients to walk at the same intensity than healthy subjects.

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Abbreviations

ANCOVA:

Analysis of covariance

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

CI:

Confident interval

Cw:

Cost of walking

T2D:

Type 2 diabetes

MR:

Metabolic rate

\(\dot {V}\)CO2 :

Rate of dioxygen production

\(\dot {V}\)O2 :

Rate of oxygen consumption

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Gwenn Hadu for his technical assistance. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRISSE Laboratory (EA4075), UFR SHE, University of La Réunion, 117 rue du General Ailleret, 97430, Le Tampon, La Réunion, France

    Nathan Caron, Nicolas Peyrot, Teddy Caderby, Chantal Verkindt & Georges Dalleau

Authors
  1. Nathan Caron
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  2. Nicolas Peyrot
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  3. Teddy Caderby
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  4. Chantal Verkindt
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  5. Georges Dalleau
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Contributions

NC, NP, TC, CV and GD conceived and planned the experiments. NC, NP, TC, CV and GD carried out the experiments. NC and NP analysed data. NC wrote the article with support from NP, TC, CV and GD. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Georges Dalleau.

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Conflict of interest

None of the authors have a professional relationship with companies or manufacturers that might benefit from the results of the present study. This work was supported by a Regional Research Grant (Grant #D2015033168) from the Réunion Region and from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Additional information

Communicated by Guido Ferretti.

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Caron, N., Peyrot, N., Caderby, T. et al. Effect of type 2 diabetes on energy cost and preferred speed of walking. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 2331–2338 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3959-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3959-z

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