Benefits of physical exercises in chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Yanqin Chen, Song Ren, Xiaoxiu Yao et al.
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In 30 seconds
This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials assessed physical exercise in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Across 82 included studies, exercise was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality, particularly among dialysis-dependent patients. The pooled findings also indicated improvements in cardiovascular and pulmonary function, dialysis adequacy, and residual renal function, alongside changes in inflammatory markers, hemoglobin, albumin, and fat mass. The authors concluded that exercise was beneficial across different exercise modes and locations.
Key findings
- Exercise significantly reduced all-cause mortality, particularly in dialysis-dependent patients.
- Cardiovascular measures, including 6-minute walk test and blood pressure, and pulmonary measures, including peak oxygen uptake, FEV1, and FVC, improved.
- Dialysis adequacy and residual renal function improved; C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 decreased, while hemoglobin and albumin increased.
- Fat mass decreased after exercise interventions in non-dialysis patients.
Why it matters
The review brings together randomized-trial evidence across a broad range of CKD outcomes, suggesting that exercise may have benefits beyond physical capacity, including renal, inflammatory, and laboratory measures. These findings support considering exercise as a potentially useful component of CKD care, while the abstract does not provide effect sizes to judge the magnitude of benefit for individual outcomes.
What to keep in mind
The abstract does not report pooled effect sizes or confidence intervals for the stated outcomes, limiting assessment of the magnitude and precision of benefit.