A quasi-experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of intradialytic leg exercise on pain, fatigue and quality of life among patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospitals at Erode

Renal failure is an important non - communicable disease that affects world Population including India. The prevalence of End Stage Renal Disease is rising throughout the developed and developing countries. The current study assessed the effectiveness of intradialytic leg exercise on pain, fatigue and quality of life among patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospitals at Erode. The study was to assess the effectiveness of intradialytic leg exercise on pain, fatigue and quality of life among patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospitals at Erode. An evaluative approach was used for this study. The research design used for the study was Quasi experimental non-equivalent pre-test an post-test control group design. The conceptual framework for the study has been based on the modified Wiedenbech’s helping art of clinical nursing theory (1964) purposive sampling technique was used to select 60 samples for the study, 30 in experimental group and 30 in control group. The tool used for the study was Numerical rating scale to assess the level of pain, Iowa fatigue scale to assess the level of fatigue and KDQOLT36 questionnaire to assess the level of quality of life. The intradialytic leg exercise was given to the patients undergoing hemodialysis for 25 minutes weekly thrice a day for a period of 6 weeks (42 days) in experimental group. The collected data were analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The paired ‘t’ value for level of pain was 6.65. which was significant at p <0.05 level of significance. The paired ‘t’ value for level of fatigue is 7.382 which was significant at P < 0.05 level of significance. The paired ‘t’ value for quality of life is 13.124 which was significant at p<0.05 level of significance. The independent ‘t’ value for level of pain 8.6278 which was significantly p<0.05 The independent ‘t ‘value for level of fatigue 6.7408 which was significantly at p<0.05. The independent ‘t’ value for quality of life 106.93 which was significant at P<0.05 level. There was no significant association between pain, fatigue and quality of life with demographic variables. The study findings revealed that practicing intradialytic leg exercise was beneficial and there was significant reduction in pain, fatigue and improvement in the quality of life among patients undergoing hemodialysis in experimental group.