Effect of walking training on blood glucose control and metabolic health in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Haodong Yuan; Tingran Zhang; Jiong Luo

doi:10.1016/j.exger.2026.113239

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Effect of walking training on blood glucose control and metabolic health in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Haodong Yuan·Tingran Zhang·Jiong Luo

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the improvement effect of walking training on blood glucose control and metabolic health indicators in type 2 diabetes patients, and to explore the effect of different intervention program characteristics on the efficacy through subgroup analysis. METHOD: The system searched PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and EBSCO databases, with a search period from the establishment of the database to March 15, 2026. Include a randomized controlled trial with the main intervention measures of walking behavior, with an intervention period of ≥8 weeks. Two researchers independently conducted literature screening, data extraction, and bias risk assessment. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 software, with mean difference (MD) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) as effect measures for continuous variables. Select fixed effects model or random effects model for combined analysis based on heterogeneity size, and conduct subgroup analysis according to intervention program characteristics. RESULTS: Totally 5 randomized controlled trials were included, including 483 patients with type 2 diabetes (241 cases in the intervention group and 242 cases in the control group). Participants had a mean age of 54.2 ± 6.5 years, BMI of 29.1 ± 3.2 kg/m2, and 48.5% were male. The meta-analysis results showed that walking training significantly reduced glycated hemoglobin levels, with a combined effect of -0.48% (95% CI: -0.60 to -0.36, P < 0.00001), There is moderate heterogeneity among the studies (I2 = 67%). Subgroup analysis showed that the "walking + other interventions" subgroup (combined effect size -0.58%, 95% CI: -0.96 to -0.20) and the "clear step target" subgroup (combined effect size -0.52%, 95% CI: -0.65 to -0.39) had larger effect sizes and lower heterogeneity within the subgroups. The bias risk assessment shows that the overall quality of the included research methodology is good. CONCLUSION: Walking training can significantly improve the blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Combined with diet or behavioral intervention, setting clear goals for the number of steps may achieve better results. Walking training can be used as an effective auxiliary treatment for the management of type 2 diabetes in clinical promotion. Due to limitations in the number and quality of studies included, the above conclusions still require more high-quality research to validate.

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Humans Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 Walking Blood Glucose Glycemic Control Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic Glycated Hemoglobin Exercise Therapy Blood glucose control Glycated hemoglobin Meta-analysis System overview Type 2 diabetes Walking training Journal Article Systematic Review Meta-Analysis Review

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Haodong Yuan, Tingran Zhang, Jiong Luo. 2026-07-15. Effect of walking training on blood glucose control and metabolic health in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2026.113239

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Blood Glucose subject Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 subject Exercise Therapy subject Humans subject Journal Article subject Journal Article; Systematic Review; Meta-Analysis; Review resource Meta-Analysis subject Randomized controlled trials study Systematic reviews study

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