Exercise may lower risk of premature death among people with diabetes
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- Reviewed by Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing; Contributor
People with diabetes who exercise regularly or in a “weekend warrior” pattern are significantly less likely to die before peers who are inactive, according to a Harvard-led analysis published in the September 2025 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers assessed data from nearly 52,000 adults with diabetes (average age 60, 50% women) for a 21-year period that began in 1997, tracking deaths through the end of 2019. Participants were divided into four activity groups, including inactive (no moderate-to-vigorous physical activity); insufficiently active (less than 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise); weekend warrior (at least 150 minutes weekly of such exercise over one or two sessions); and regularly active (at least 150 minutes weekly over three or more sessions).
During a follow-up period averaging nearly 10 years, weekend warriors had a 21% lower risk of dying compared with inactive people, while regularly active people had a 17% lower risk. The risk for heart-related deaths was even lower — 33% — for weekend warriors compared with those who didn’t exercise at all. Meanwhile, people classified as insufficiently active still had a 10% lower risk of dying from any cause during the study period than inactive people.
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About the Author
Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
About the Reviewer
Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing; Contributor
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