Tele-Physical Activity Promotion Program among College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and distance learning affected physical activity (PA) levels among college students. The aims were to assess the effectiveness of a tele-health PA promotion program for 6 weeks, among junior college students, on PA level and on the proportion of physically active students during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: A pre–post study design was conducted on 46 students aged 19 (±0.9) years old in Saudi Arabia. The study consisted of online introductory and educational PA classes, followed by a 6-week course during which students received daily online PA promotive messages. Wilcoxon signed-rank and McNemar’s tests were used to measure the mean differences in PA level and the changes in proportion of physically active students before and after the program, respectively. Results: The proportion of students who perform walking increased significantly from 47.4% to 68.4% (p = 0.02), while the number of students who perform moderate PA in their leisure time increased significantly from 38.9% to 69.4% (p = 0.02). No significant differences were detected between other PA levels. Conclusions: This program is effective in encouraging more college students to be physically active, but not in improving PA levels. Larger scale studies using PA objective measurement tools are needed

Echocardiographic Changes in Saudi Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background and Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among the diabetic population. Given the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in Saudi Arabia and the high prevalence of heart failure in the diabetic population, this study assesses the echocardiographic changes in Saudi patients with type 2 DM (T2DM) compared with healthy controls. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective case–control study, 80 patients with diabetes (45 males, age: 58.78 ± 10.2 years) were compared with 80 controls (45 males, age: 58.6 ± 10 years) who underwent an echocardiographic study in the King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: There were no significant differences between the patients with diabetes and controls in terms of aortic root diameter, left atrium diameter, posterior wall, interventricular wall thickness, left ventricular diameters and ejection fraction. However, diastolic dysfunction was statistically significantly higher in the diabetic group than in the control group (p Conclusions: This is the first case–control study in Saudi Arabia that assesses echocardiographic parameters in T2DM patients. DM is an independent risk factor for diastolic dysfunction regardless of its association with hypertension and dyslipidemia