An Exercise Program for Peritoneal Dialysis Patients In the United States: A Feasibility Study

Background: People with end-stage kidney disease receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD) are generally physically inactive and frail. Exercise studies in PD are scarce and currently there are no PD exercise programs in the United States. The primary objective of this study was to test the feasibility of a combined resistance and cardiovascular exercise program for PD patients under the care of a dedicated home dialysis center in the United States.

Study Design: Parallel randomized controlled feasibility study.

Setting & Participants: PD patients were recruited from a single center and randomly assigned to the intervention (exercise; n = 18) or control (nonexercise; n = 18) group.

Intervention: The intervention group received monthly exercise physiologist consultation, exercise prescription (resistance and aerobic exercise program using exercise bands), and 4 exercise support telephone calls over 12 weeks. The control group received standard care.

Outcomes: The primary outcome was study feasibility as measured by eligibility rates, recruitment rates, retention rates, adherence rates, adverse events, and sustained exercise rates. Secondary outcome measures were changes in physical function (sit-to-stand test, timed-up-and-go test, and pinch-strength tests) and patient-reported outcome measures.

Results: From a single center with 75 PD patients, 57 (76%) were deemed eligible, resulting in a recruitment rate of 36 (63%) patients. Participants were randomly assigned into 2 groups of 18 (1:1). 10 patients discontinued the study (5 in each arm), resulting in 26 (72%) patients, 13 in each arm, completing the study. 10 of 13 (77%) intervention patients were adherent to the exercise program. A test analysis of covariance found a difference between the treatment groups for the timed-up-and-go test ( = 0.04) and appetite ( = 0.04). No serious adverse events caused by the exercise program were reported.

Limitations: Single center, no blinded assessors.

Conclusions: A resistance and cardiovascular exercise program appears feasible and safe for PD patients. We recommend that providers of PD therapy consider including exercise programs coordinated by exercise professionals to reduce the physical deterioration of PD patients.

Funding: None.

Trial Registration: NCT03980795.