Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday I visited Bond University to meet with participants in a free walking program for women aged 65 to 74 with type 2 diabetes. The program is a joint study being run by Bond University and Griffith University that was funded by the previous government and is designed to determine the amount of walking that has the most beneficial effect in managing type 2 diabetes in women of 65 to 74 years of age. Approximately 275 Australian adults are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every day, and while regular exercise is known to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes how it does so is not well understood.

The walking program runs over 12 weeks, and participants walk either four days per week or two days per week at Bond University in Robina to determine the best dose of walking to improve health, diabetes and wellbeing. Professor Greg Gass and his dedicated team are on hand to monitor the participants’ improvement and provide them with a large amount of information about their health, including detailed progress reports on the state of their health. The ladies are also encouraged to discuss their progress with their GPs to further manage their overall wellbeing. I spoke with a number of the participants, and all reported feeling better about their health and general wellbeing since starting the program. Some noted that they had increased their social interaction as a result of coming in on a regular basis to exercise with other women. With too many people relying on medication as a quick fix to their health problems, I commend the work Professor Gass and his team are doing to understand how regular exercise can be prescribed to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes. (Time expired)