Trial results for a pilot study investigating home-based exercise in Chronic Kidney Disease patients were posted on ClinicalTrials.gov on 2025-08-17, involving 15 participants.
Background
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a progressive condition affecting kidney function. Patients with CKD often experience decreased physical function and reduced quality of life, which can impact their overall health and well-being. Interventions aimed at improving physical function are important for managing the disease and enhancing patient outcomes. This pilot study explored the potential of home-based exercise as an intervention to address these challenges, particularly focusing on physical function and frailty parameters in kidney transplant candidates.
Trial design
This completed pilot study, designated as Phase NA, enrolled 15 participants. The trial investigated Chronic Kidney Disease, specifically focusing on kidney transplant candidates. The intervention involved home-based exercise. The study aimed to determine if home-based exercise could improve decreased physical function, frailty parameters, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) scores, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), physical activity, and reduce adverse clinical outcomes like hospitalizations.
Key results
The trial reported several key measurements for the "Intervention" group:
- Change in Short Physical Performance Battery Score: median -1 units on a scale.
- Change in Grip Strength: median 2.8 kilograms.
- Change in Gait Speed: median -0.1 meters/second.
- Change in Exhaustion: median 10.0 score on a scale.
- Change in Physical Activity: median -0.4 hours per day.
- Change in Quality of Life: median 1.7 score on a scale.
- Change in Weight: median -1.1 kilograms.
- Change in Percent Body Fat: median 0.9 percentage of body fat.
- Change in Physical Frailty Phenotype: median 0 units on a scale.
Several analyses were also reported using the Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney) method, with the following p-values:
- 0.73
- 0.07
- 0.65
- 0.31
- 0.55
- 0.95
What this means
The pilot study explored the effects of home-based exercise on physical function and quality of life in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease. While some measures, such as grip strength and quality of life, showed positive median changes, others like Short Physical Performance Battery score, gait speed, physical activity, and weight showed negative median changes. Additionally, exhaustion and percent body fat showed increased median values. The reported p-values from Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney) analyses were all above 0.05, suggesting no statistically significant changes were observed for the analyzed outcomes. Given the small enrollment of 15 participants, these preliminary findings indicate mixed effects and highlight the need for larger, controlled studies to determine the efficacy of home-based exercise in this population.
Source
The information regarding these trial results was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a public database of clinical studies. The results for the study NCT04745169, titled "Home-Based Exercise to Treat Decreased Physical Function in Patients With Varying Levels of Kidney Function", were posted on 2025-08-17 on clinicaltrials.gov.