Effect of chronic High Intensity Interval Training on glycosylated haemoglobin in people with type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease with an increasing prevalence all over the world. The treatment includes an integral intervention with medical treatment, healthy diet, and regular exercise. High Intensity Interval Training has been recently proposed as part of this treatment to improve glycaemic control. The aim of this meta-analysis is to determine the effect of High Intensity Interval Training on glycosylated haemoglobin in people with type 2 diabetes during at least 12 weeks of intervention. The search was performed in EBSCOHost, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and EMBASE. A total of 250 records were obtained and 22 studies met the inclusion criteria to be meta-analysed. The results showed that High Intensity Interval Training could significantly lower glycosylated haemoglobin; in the sedentary control group, glycosylated haemoglobin significantly increased, making glycaemic control worse. The improvement of glycosylated haemoglobin with High Intensity Interval Training can be influenced by diet, intensity of the intervals, and age. There were some limitations because of lack of control group and appropriate information in some studies. An adequate prescription program should be developed by a qualified professional to ensure best results.