• Posted February 13, 2026

Physical Inactivity Drives Diabetes Complications, Study Finds

A lack of exercise drives a good portion of the health problems faced by people with type 2 diabetes, a new study says.

Up to 10% of diabetes complications like stroke, heart failure, heart disease and vision loss can be attributed to sedentary behavior, researchers reported in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

“Diabetes complications are often seen as inevitable consequences of the disease,” said lead researcher Jayne Feter, a medical researcher with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sol in Brazil.

“Our findings challenge this idea by showing that a meaningful proportion of these complications could be prevented through achievable increases in physical activity among people living with diabetes,” Feter said in a news release.

For the study, researchers pooled data on nearly 2.4 million people from 27 prior health studies conducted around the world.

Using the data, researchers tracked physical activity levels among people with diabetes, as well as any diabetes-related complications they developed.

The team defined physical inactivity as not achieving at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise.

Examples of moderate-intensity exercise include brisk walking, slow bicycling, active yoga, line dancing, or general yard or home repair work, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Vigorous exercise includes running, swimming laps, aerobic dancing, fast bicycling, jumping rope and heavy yard work like digging or shoveling.

Results showed that physical inactivity among people with diabetes accounted for:

• 10.2% of strokes

• 9.7% of diabetic retinopathy

• 7.3% of heart failure

• Up to 7% of heart disease

Women and people with less education consistently had higher levels of diabetes complications associated with a lack of exercise, researchers said.

“This study reframes physical activity as a core component of diabetes complication prevention,” Feter said. “Promoting physical activity among people with diabetes could reduce hospitalizations, disability and health care costs, while improving quality of life.”

However, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work, given differences in how physical activity occurs in different parts of the world, researchers warned.

For example, people in wealthy countries tend to exercise in their leisure time, while in lower-income countries people get their physical activity as part of their work.

“Policies must be tailored to local realities and explicitly address social and gender inequalities,” researcher Natan Feter, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Southern California, said in a news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on physical activity levels.

SOURCE: Journal of Sport and Health Science, news release, Feb. 11, 2026