effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure of patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial

background: hypertension is one of the prevalent and dangerous complications of diabetes mellitus. as it is difficult to control hypertension, the necessity of using new techniques such as non-pharmaceutical methods and complementary therapy is doubled. this study aimed to determine the effect of aerobic exercise on the blood pressure of patients with type 2 diabetes. methods: this study was a quasi-experimental randomized trial conducted on 67 volunteered patients with type 2 diabetes. the participants were randomly assigned to walking exercise (n=33) and control (n=34) groups. the walking exercise group practiced 30 minutes, 3 days a week for 8 consecutive weeks. systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the samples were measured once before the study and then after the intervention. the data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, the kolmogorov-smirnov test, paired t test, independent t test, and chi-square test using spss (v. 16). p value less than 0.05 was considered significant. results: the difference between the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the groups before the intervention was not significant (p>0.05). there was no significant difference between the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the walking group before and after the intervention (p>0.05). no significant difference was seen between systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the walking and control groups after the intervention (p>0.05). conclusion: according to the findings, 8 weeks of aerobic (walking) exercise did not reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes.