Is nutrition intervention more effective than exercise intervention in helping adult diabetic patients manage diabetes?

Develop a clinical question for study using the PICO format
Is nutrition intervention more effective than exercise intervention in helping adult
diabetic patients manage diabetes?
Literature Search
The process of searching for literature related to my PICO question was guided by
various keywords. The keywords that I used are nutrition intervention, diabetes patients, physical
exercise. To ensure that my search was narrowed down, I relied on phrases such as the
effectiveness of nutrition intervention for diabetic patients and effectiveness of exercise as an
intervention for diabetic patients.
Describe at least three sources of relevant literature findings on your PICO question
One of the sources that I found is an article titled Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets in Type
1 and Type 2 Diabetes (Bolla et al., 2019). Clinicians recommend low-carb and ketogenic diets
to help diabetic patients deal with obesity. Studies on the effectiveness of the measure have
remained largely controversial. One of the main reasons why such studies have remained
controversial relates to the fact that the diets are poorly defined. While it is generally accepted
that low-carb diets help patients with type 2 diabetes achieve glucose control, data on the
effectiveness and sustainability of the measure remains scarce (Bolla et al., 2019). The research
seeks to fill in the research gap by examining several issues relating to low-carb and ketogenic
diets.

UNIT 3 – INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 3
The second article that I found is titled The impact of educational intervention on
physical activity, nutrition and laboratory parameters in type II diabetic patients. Diabetes is a
chronic condition that affects many people across the world (Maheri et al., 2017). The number
of patients has continued to increase. The increase in the number of patients can be traced down
to poor lifestyle habits. One of the interventions that have been proposed is exercise. The study
aimed at elaborating the effectiveness of the educational intervention on physical activity levels
on diabetic students. The study was conducted in 2015, with 100 patients being sampled for the
study (Maheri et al., 2017). The results indicate that education helps ensure that diabetic patients
adhere to dietary recommendations. The study indicates that dietary recommendations alone
cannot be used to help diabetic patients.
The last article that I located is titled Randomized controlled community-based nutrition,
and exercise intervention improves glycemia and cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetic
patients in rural Costa Rica (Goldhaber-Fiebert et al., 2003). In developing countries, the
incidence of type 2 diabetes has increased over time. There are various methods that are being
used to help diabetic patients deal with the changes that occur when diagnosed. The study aimed
to study the effectiveness of community-based nutrition and exercise intervention in helping type
2 diabetes patients in Costa Rica (Goldhaber-Fiebert et al., 2003). The study involved 75 adults
who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The study concluded that type 2 diabetes patients
could greatly benefit from community-based interventions centering on nutrition and exercise.
After using Google Scholar, the search resulted in 246,000 results. The search engine is
effective in searching for scholarly sources. The engine helps ensure that a researcher can
combine various keywords, and this helps in narrowing down the results. One can narrow down
the search by zooming in on the topic. The use of different keywords, as well as phrases, can

UNIT 3 – INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 4
help ensure that one narrows down their research topic. One can also use different databases as
well as search engines. The use of Google Scholar was more effective since the search results
were specific to my research topic. The difference between a search engine and a database is the
fact that a search engine is broad. A search engine searches a variety of databases. However, a
search engine can always result in non-academic articles. The use of a database thus helps in
ensuring that the results are from peer-reviewed journals. I would select the use of a search
engine and narrow it down to peer-reviewed journals. It is effective and does not need one to
narrow down their search.

UNIT 3 – INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 5

References

Bolla, A. M., Caretto, A., Laurenzi, A., Scavini, M., & Piemonti, L. (2019). Low-Carb and
Ketogenic Diets in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. Nutrients, 11(5), 962.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11050962
Maheri, A., Asnaashari, M., Joveini, H., Tol, A., Firouzian, A. A., & Rohban, A. (2017). The
impact of educational intervention on physical activity, nutrition and laboratory
parameters in type II diabetic patients. Electronic physician, 9(4), 4207–4214.
https://doi.org/10.19082/4207
Goldhaber-Fiebert, J. D., Goldhaber-Fiebert, S. N., Tristán, M. L., & Nathan, D. M. (2003).
Randomized controlled community-based nutrition and exercise intervention improves
glycemia and cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetic patients in rural Costa
Rica. Diabetes care, 26(1), 24–29. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.26.1.24