Determining the effects of football with diet on patients with type 1 diabetes

Previous studies have shown that a 12-week physical activity program does not improve the glycemic control of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. The research aim will be to identify the effects of football (soccer) combined with a diet regimen on the glycemic control, health-related fitness, and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of boys with T1DM. This study will be a parallel group randomized control trial. The patients will be recruited from hospitals in Dhahran, Khobar, and Dammam, Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Patients under 12 years of age, or with T1DM for less than one year, or with chronic diseases, or who cannot come to the study location will be excluded from the study. The data will be collected at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and Fahkry Hospital. The sample will consist of 40 patients each allocated equally into four groups. These groups will be the football with diet, the football only group, the diet only group, and the control group. The lab technicians and statistician will be blinded to group assignment. The intervention groups will go through 50 minutes of moderate intensity exercise sessions (50-70 % of the maximum heart rate), three times a week for 12 weeks, and will be provided diet recommendations. The control group will receive no intervention (usual care only). Body mass, body mass index (BMI), cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, resting heart rate, blood pressure, blood lipids, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, and HRQoL will be measured at baseline and after the program. The HRQoL will be determined using The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) with Diabetes Module 3.0. The primary outcome will be assessing glycemic control through changes in HbA1c after 12 weeks. Shapiro-Wilk test will be performed before analyzing the data using parametric or non-parametric tests. Alpha levels will be set at 0.05. Cohen d will be used to estimate the effect size for normal data, while the Rank Biserial Correlation will be used to estimate the effect size for non-normal data.