Effects of progressive resistance exercises on quality of life and functional capacity in pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease: a randomized trail

AIM: To investigate the effects of progressive resistance exercises on quality of life and functional capacity in pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease. METHODS: Thirty-two children with chronic kidney disease from both genders, age ranged from 8 to 12 years participated in this study. They were allocated randomly into two groups of equal numbers, standard medical care (SC) and exercise (EX) groups. The SC group received standard medical care with no change of their regular daily activities. The EX group received progressive resistance exercises for 60 minutes two times a week in addition to the standard medical care for six successive months. OUTCOME MEASURES: Included the pediatric quality of life inventory and six-minutes walking test to assess quality of life and functional capacity respectively. RESULTS: There were statistically significant improvements in the post-test quality of life and functional capacity in the EX group (p<0.05). The SC group showed significant decrease of quality of life and non-significant change was recorded regarding their functional capacity (p<0.05). The post-test comparison between the two groups revealed significant difference in favor of the EX group in all measured variables. CONCLUSION: Progressive resistance exercises contributed to the improvement of quality of life and functional capacity in pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease.