Background and purpose: Stroke is associated with diabetes because diabetes predisposes to hypertension and hypertension predisposes to stroke. Diabetes is the largest common health problem among patients with stroke that adversely affects cardiovascular system. Many people who suffer stroke in the first place have diabetes as a major risk factor for stroke. Aerobic exercise reduces resting heart rate, increases cardiac output, lowers blood lipids and controls insulin level in diabetic patients. The study investigated the cardiovascular effect of 8 weeks aerobic exercise in Diabetics and Non Diabetic Stroke patients in Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital Kano

Relevance: This study is relevant to further affirm the relative effect of structured aerobic exercise on selected cardiovascular parameters of diabetic and non-diabetic stroke patients and to provide a clinical information concerning whether exercise prescription will be the same or different for stroke patients with type 2 diabetes and those without.

Participants/subjects: A total number of forty patients attending physiotherapy clinics of Murtala Muhammad specialist hospital and Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist hospital were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Stroke patients with type 2 diabetes having their hypertension and diabetes controlled with a  muscle power of at least three using Oxford Muscle Grading and absence of any severe form of cardiorespiratory disorder like asthma were recruited. They were grouped into two. Group A consist of twenty diabetic stroke and Group B is twenty non-diabetic stroke patients.

Methodology: The study was a Pretest-posttest experimental research design. Patients in both groups performed aerobic exercise by walking on the treadmill machine, 3 times a week on alternate days for 8 weeks. The exercises lasted 4 minutes by the first week and increased to 10 minutes by the eighth week. Baseline Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and Heart Rate (HR) were measured and the end of 8 weeks of exercise. Data collected was analysed using ANCOVA to establish whether there is any significant difference in the cardiovascular effect between the two groups at an alpha level of 0.05

Results: The two groups were homogenous in physical characteristics (age and weight). This study found no significant difference in heart rate between diabetic and non-diabetic stroke (p=0.0630). Also no significant difference in systolic blood pressure (SBP) between the 2 groups (p= 0.181). Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) between the 2 groups following 8 weeks aerobic exercise shows significance (p=0.028).

Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that 8 weeks treadmill aerobic exercise in diabetic and non-diabetic stroke patients was found to be effective in improving the cardiovascular parameters, Diastolic Blood Pressures (DBP).  No improvement was reported in heart rate and systolic blood pressure

Implications: This implies that eight weeks aerobic exercise is beneficial in improving diastolic blood pressure of diabetic stroke and non-diabetic stroke patients. The lowering of the patients’ DBP, gives a better control of the overall blood pressure, the heart and thus a healthier cardiovascular system.

Keywords: stroke, diabetes, aerobic exercise, cardiovascular adaptation

Funding source acknowledgement: self-funded

Ethics approval: ethical approval was obtained from the management of the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital.