Effect of exercise on quality of life of patients with chronic kidney disease

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have less exercise capacity, and they are at higher risk of experiencing cognitive impairment, and lower health-related quality of life (QoL) than healthy individuals. Thus, the current study aims to assess the effect of exercise on patients’ cognition, QoL, and biochemical parameters.

This is an observational study to evaluate the effect of the exercise, which enrolled 90 patients with CKD (stage 3, 4, or 5) admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Patients were made to do a 20-25 min exercise (breathing and limb exercises) and its effect on biochemical parameters (serum creatinine, sodium, potassium, and hemoglobin) was recorded from patient reports from day 1(T1; baseline) till day 7(T7). Further, the effect of exercise on cognition and QoL was assessed at T1 and T7 using the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL-BREF), respectively.

Significant improvement in the level of serum creatinine, sodium, potassium, and hemoglobin were found in patients with CKD after 7 days of lower and upper limb and breathing exercises. Moreover, significant improvement in all four domains of WHOQOL-BREF i.e., physical health, psychological health, social relationship, and the environment was observed.

This study showed that after 7 days of exercise, there was a significant improvement in cognition, biochemical parameters, and QoL in CKD patients.