Background: Diabetes mellitus is considered a major risk factor for developing coronary artery disease, and is associated with a marked increase in the complications post cardiac revascularization in both women and men in addition to its impact on the patients Quality of life.
Objectives: the study aims to assess the impact of diabetes mellitus upon the physical activity for patients post coronary artery bypass graft surgery and to find out the relationship between the physical activity and socio-demographic and clinical data of the diabetic patients.
Methods: descriptive study was conducted to identify the impact of diabetes mellitus upon the physical activity of patients who undergoing CABG surgery at least three months ago. The study starting in November 10th 2012 to the July 10th 2013 on the 100 patients in three centers and hospitals in Baghdad city (Ibn Al-bittar center for cardiac surgery, Iben Al-Naffes Hospital and Al-Iraqi Center for Cardiac Disease), the instrument was consist of two part which of clinical- demographic data (gender, age group, marital status, educational level, cholesterol, BMI) and physical activities instrument that consist of eight items that measure the basic and moderate activities of daily living, the reliability of the study was measured through test retest method=0.93, the researcher use the descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data .
Results: the result of the study shows that (57%) of the study samples have diabetic in comparison (43%) with Non-diabetic patients, (46%) of the diabetic patients were males, (28%) of the subject were at the age group 51- 60 years, (46%) were married, (13%) illiterate. (31%) have high cholesterol level and (26%) were overweight. Added to that the study shows a highly statistical difference in the physical activity between diabetic and non-diabetic patients, a highly statistical association between physical activity and clinical-demographic data (gender, age group, cholesterol level and BMI) of the diabetic patients were also found.
Conclusions: the study conclude that the physical activity of the diabetic patients is less than non- diabetic patients and the clinical - demographic data (gender, age group, cholesterol level and BMI) of the diabetic patient affect with highly significant association (p≤0.01) on their physical activity post CABG surgery.
Recommendations: according to the findings of the study the researchers recommend to Prepare a special programs and guide booklet that encourage patients to improve their physical activity post CABG surgery which include diet modification, adherence to treatment, regular exercise, and other life style modification.