Global Journal of Health Science; Vol. 15, No. 1; 2023 ISSN 1916-9736 E-ISSN 1916-9744 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 20 Barriers to Exercise among Non-Exercising Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients Visiting a Tertiary Care Hospital Vinod Kumar 1 & Chander Kumar Lohana 2 1 Family Medicine Department, Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN), The Indus Hospital, Korangi, Crossing, Karachi, Pakistan 2 Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, AL-Khod, Muscat, Oman Correspondence: Chander Kumar Lohana, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, PO Box 110, PC 123, AL-Khod, Muscat, Oman. Tel: 968-94-455-310. E-mail: cklohano@hotmail.com Received: October 26, 2022 Accepted: November 23, 2022 Online Published: December 5, 2022 doi:10.5539/gjhs.v15n1p20 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v15n1p20 Abstract Exercise is a crucial strategy for diabetes management. However, the majority of patients with Type 2 diabetes seem reluctant to do physical activity. It increases the need of investigating the factors that are responsible for their non-exercising routine. This study aims to recognize the psychological and social barriers that prevent patients with diabetes mellitus to do exercise. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 275 patients with type 2 diabetes attending family medicine outpatient clinics for the last six months. The questionnaire has been designed to collect data regarding psychological and social barriers to exercise. A comparison of social and psychological barriers with general characteristics was performed. The findings of the study reveal that all the general characteristics were significantly associated with psychological and social barriers. The patients reported that lack of interest, no willpower, a feeling of depression, unaffordability, and time barriers were the most frequent barriers among social and psychological barriers to exercise. Keywords: diabetes, physical activity, exercises, barriers, physical, psychological, social, environmental 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduce the Problem Diabetes mellitus has been accelerating at epidemic proportions around the world. It is associated with the emergence of other medical conditions as well as morbidity and mortality. It is estimated that in the year 2015, 415 million adults had diabetes which could reach the mark of 624 million (International Diabetes Federation, 2020). The number of diabetes patients has increased from 4.7% to 8.5% since 1980 among adults. This prevalence can be associated with the factors of obesity (Roglic, 2020). Usually, people in middle and low-income countries are more affected by diabetes in comparison with countries with higher income streams (Roglic, 2020). The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Pakistan has stated that approximately 10 million people have been living with diabetes of which 7 million people are diagnosed while 3 million could not be diagnosed (IDF, 2020). Some risk factors associated with diabetes include genetics, gestational diabetes metabolic, obesity, unhealthy diet, smoking, no or lack of physical activity, and being overweight (International Diabetes Federation, 2020). 1.2 Explore the Importance of the Problem Among the stated risk factors, obesity and overweight, coupled with no or lack of physical activity is the most prevalent risk factors to trigger diabetes (GBD 2013 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2015). To obtain a healthy lifestyle, exercise is more important, especially for patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (Huang et al., 2016). It has a positive impact on the level of blood sugar, mitigates the risk of cardiovascular diseases, helps in weight loss, and increases the quality of life (Lin et al., 2015; Colberg et al., 2010). Moreover, exercise is associated with a plethora of other psychological and physical positive outcomes for the patients of T2DM6. Doing regular exercise is helpful to mitigate the chances of developing T2DM or delay the process of its emergence (Schellenberg et al., 2013). A study that was conducted in District Dir Lower, Pakistan, revealed that lack of exercise was associated with diabetes (p-value 0.045) (Akhtar et al., 2016). Results of another study in Pakistan conducted on patients with chronic diseases (T2DM and cardiovascular disease) found that 60% of the patients were not physically active.