Video Call-Based Assessment of Physical Fitness through Diabefly Digital Therapeutics Program for People with T2D in India

Background: Exercise is an integral aspect for effective diabetes management. Supervised home-based exercise through exercise prescriptions customized based on a person's exercise status, pain complaints and fitness levels can help in better adherence and low risk of injury while reducing unnecessary hospital visits. The study was aimed at the assessment of physical fitness in people with diabetes (PWD) for the development of a personalized exercise plan. Methods: Video-call based assessment of physical fitness was done in 470 participants (mean age 44.9 ± 10.4, 31.7% females) of Diabefly® digital therapeutics platform. Trained physiotherapist conducted the assessment with the corresponding tests: upper limb strength (1-min push up test) , lower limb strength (wall sit test) , core strength (1-min sit up test) , flexibility (V-sit and reach test) and cardiorespiratory fitness (6 minute walk test) . The scores of the tests were obtained through gender and age based normative data. Participants were categorized based on the physical activity (PA) status as non-exercisers (less than 150 mins/week of PA) , aerobic exercisers (performed only walking as PA) , exercisers (combined strength training and aerobic PA >150 mins/week) . Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were performed via SPPS v21. Results: Out of all the participants, 69.4% were in the obese category with 42.1% of participants being non-exercisers, 42.1% were aerobic exercisers while only 15.7% were exercisers. Mild to moderate pain was reported by 36.1% participants. Cardiorespiratory fitness, upper limb strength, core strength and flexibility were significantly lower among non-exercisers as compared to exercisers (P<0.05) . Conclusion: This study showed the feasibility of video call-based physical fitness assessment in PWD. The assessment along with consideration of pain and current exercise pattern will help in development of personalized exercise prescription for PWD. Disclosure M.Bhagat: Employee; Fitterfly Healthtech Pvt Ltd. S.Guntur: Employee; Fitterfly Health Tech Pvt. Ltd. A.S.Mandlekar: Employee; Fitterfly Healthtech Pvt Ltd. R.Verma: Employee; Fitterfly Healthtech Pvt Ltd, Wellthy Therapeutics Pvt Ltd. S.S.Kulkarni: None. C.Selvan: None. A.D.Modi: None. M.T.Shenoy: None. A.L.Jain: None. R.Das: None.