1 Free An app to safely perform strength exercises in young people with type 1 diabetes

2025/08/22 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna
• Medikuntza
• Berdintasuna

Children and teens with type 1 diabetes are at risk of hypoglycaemia at night if they do strength exercises without proper control. To avoid this, Ignacio Hormazabal Aguayo, with a degree in Physical Activity Sciences, has developed a mobile application in his doctoral thesis at the Public University of Navarra. The app is called Diactive-1 and, according to the author, for young people with type 1 diabetes, it is a step forward in the personalization of exercise and can help improve their autonomy and quality of life.

In his thesis, Hormazabal has studied three aspects: [Global incidence of type 1 diabetes in the paediatric population, influence of exercise on nocturnal hypoglycemia, and development and validation of the application of Diactive-1].

In the first part, he showed that in many regions of the world, the increase in cases of type 1 diabetes is constant. The second part was carried out by the Physical Activity Unit for Children and Young People of Navarrabiomed, in collaboration with the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit of the University Hospital of Navarra. He noted that intensified strength exercise is associated with an increased risk of nocturnal hypoglycaemia, especially in patients receiving doses of insulin greater than 1.04 units per kg. From this, he concluded that it is important to individualize the recommendations of physical exercise, taking into account the intensity and clinical and pharmacological context of each patient.

Finally, he created the Diactive-1 app specifically for these users. The application is based on the structured clinical protocol and allows the individualized and progressive prescription of strength exercise. In this way, it adapts the recommendations according to the user's glucose level and the trend arrow. For example, it indicates whether it is safe to train or whether it is necessary to stabilize glucose levels and their propensity in the first place. Evaluate the application with an experimental group and, as confirmed by the participants, the application is easy to use and useful.