Home exercise improved walking performance in older adults with kidney disease
A small trial found better walking-test gains with exercise and counseling, while kidney function and other secondary outcomes showed no significant change.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Older adults with kidney disease who had not started dialysis improved their walking-test performance more with home exercise and counseling than participants in the control group. A quality-of-life subscale also improved within the exercise group. However, the abstract does not report significant changes in kidney function, depressive symptoms or nutritional status.
The abstract does not report the size of the walking benefit or confidence intervals. This was a small, single-center trial, and the abstract does not describe whether benefits persisted after the program ended.
What researchers found
6-minute walk distance
Exercise plus counseling versus control over 6 months; between-group difference in change. The abstract gives no numerical distance difference.
A specific quality-of-life result
One quality-of-life subscale, called role-physical, improved in the exercise group and declined in controls. The abstract does not give a clear between-group change estimate or show improvements across every quality-of-life domain.
Kidney outcomes remained uncertain
The study also assessed renal function, nutrition and depressive symptoms. None showed statistically significant change. That finding does not prove an absence of effects, but it limits claims that the program improved kidney disease itself.
The original publication
Effects of home-based exercise on physical function and health-related quality of life in older patients with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease: a single-center randomized controlled trial.
Tabata A, Yabe H, Katogi T et al.
Clin Exp Nephrol · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 40963033
- Record checked
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