Home-Based Exercise to Treat Decreased Physical Function in Patients With Varying Levels of Kidney Function

Home-Based Exercise as an Intervention to Treat Decreased Physical Function in Patients With Varying Levels of Kidney Function

The investigators will conduct a pilot study to determine whether home-based exercise is an effective intervention to improve decreased physical function in kidney transplant candidates. The investigators will determine if home-based exercise improves frailty parameters and SPPB scores. The investigators will also determine if home-based exercise improves health-related quality of life (HRQOL), physical activity, and adverse clinical outcomes, including hospitalizations.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Chronic Kidney Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: 8 week home-based exercise program

Detailed Description

Screening and Recruitment:

Potential participants will be identified from dialysis units, nephrology clinics, primary care clinics, or kidney transplant clinics at Baylor College of Medicine. Patients who express interest in the study will go through the informed consent process with a member of the study team, and patients wishing to participate in the study will complete written consent. If patients have not had frailty and SPPB testing within the two weeks prior to consent, the study team member will perform frailty and SPPB testing at baseline in a supervised setting. Patients who are not frail or pre-frail and have a SPPB score > 10 will be ineligible for study participation.

Exercise Intervention:

Participants will be provided with a pedal exerciser, resistance bands, and exercise pamphlets. Participants will be asked to complete an 8-week home-based exercise program with a focus on the core components of physical activity counseling and exercise training according to guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Participants will receive an individualized exercise prescription. Recommended aerobic exercises will include arm and/or leg ergometry using a pedal exerciser, and recommended resistance training will include resistance bands. During the program, participants will receive weekly semi-scripted phone calls from an exercise physiologist and gradual increases in the volume of physical activity will be recommended over time. Participants will be asked to log information regarding their exercise sessions.

Study Measures:

Participants will complete the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), and Fried Frailty phenotype at baseline and after completion of the exercise intervention. The SPPB consists of gait speed, balance, and repeat chair stand tests. The Fried Frailty Phenotype consists of gait speed and grip strength tests, in addition to self-reported measurement of physical activity, weight loss, and exhaustion. Participants will also be asked to complete questionnaires and wear a physical activity monitor at baseline and after completion of the exercise intervention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 15
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Minnesota
    • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
      • Mayo Clinic
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Baylor College of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18 years or older
• Consenting to research
• Chronic kidney disease (stages 1-5)
• An SPPB score ≤10 or considered frail or pre-frail according to the Fried Frailty Phenotype

Exclusion Criteria:

• Younger than 18 years
• Patients being evaluated for combined organ transplantation
• Significant comorbidities that limit rehabilitation potential including pulmonary disease requiring continuous oxygen supplementation, active angina, critical aortic sclerosis, decompensated heart failure, or known ventricular arrhythmia.
• An SPPB score >10 or not considered frail or pre-frail by the Fried Frailty Phenotype
• Non-English speaker without availability of adequate interpreter services (safety concern)
• Failure to pass submaximal exercise test in patients not approved for kidney transplantation at our center

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Other: Intervention; Participants will be asked to complete an 8-week home-based exercise intervention

Behavioral: 8 week home-based exercise program; Participants will be asked to complete an 8-week home-based exercise program according to guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. At study baseline, participants will receive exercise equipment and an individualized exercise prescription from an exercise physiologist followed by 8 weekly phone calls from an exercise physiologist. Participant safety will be monitored.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Short Physical Performance Battery Score	The Short Physical Performance Battery is a composite measure which includes component tests of balance, gait speed, and chair stand time. Participants receive a score of 0-4 for each of the 3 component tests with lower scores indicating worse physical function. Component scores are then summed providing a total score of 0-12 with lower scores again indicating worse physical function.	8 weeks of home-based exercise

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Grip Strength	Grip strength will be measured using a hand-held dynamometer.	8 weeks
Change in Gait Speed	Gait speed at the participant's self-selected walking speed will be measured.	8 weeks
Change in Exhaustion	Patients will self-report their level of exhaustion using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) which consists of a 4-point scale. Items on the CES-D are scored from minimum to maximum values (1 point to 4 points) which are indicated on the CES-D as "rarely or none of the time," "some or a little of the time," "occasionally or a moderate amount of time," "most or all of the time," respectively. A higher number of points indicates a worse outcome. Energy/fatigue scores on the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SF) will also be calculated. Energy/fatigue scores range from 0 to 100 points with a higher number of points indicating a worse outcome.	8 weeks
Change in Physical Activity	Energy expenditure will be measured using an activity monitor worn on the wrist for 7 days. Low activity is defined as activity in the lowest 20% (<383 Kcals/week for men or <270 Kcals/week for women). Patients will also self-report their activity level using the Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire.	8 weeks
Change in Quality of Life	Health-related quality of life will be measured using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form. This questionnaire includes scales with minimum values of 0 and maximum values of 100. Higher scores indicate better quality of life.	8 weeks
Change in Weight	Weight will be measured using a scale.	8 weeks
Change in Percent Body Fat	Change in percent body fat from baseline to 8 weeks was measured in the subset of participants from Mayo Clinic using bioelectrical impedance analysis.	8 weeks
Change in Physical Frailty Phenotype	The Physical Frailty Phenotype score is based on 5 criteria: unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, low physical activity, slowness, weakness. Participants receive a score of 1 for each criterion they meet. The criterion scores are then summed to provide a total score ranging from 0-5 with higher scores indicating greater frailty. Specifically, a total score of 0 indicates that the participant is not frail, a score of 1-2 indicates that the participant is pre-frail, and a score of 3-5 indicates that the participant is frail.	8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Baylor College of Medicine
• Collaborators: Mayo Clinic; National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Elizabeth C Lorenz, MD, Baylor College of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Mayo Clinic Clinical Trials

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 21, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 16, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 16, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 29, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): February 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 17, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 14, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Urogenital Diseases; Pathologic Processes; Male Urogenital Diseases; Urologic Diseases; Female Urogenital Diseases; Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications; Chronic Disease; Disease Attributes; Renal Insufficiency; Kidney Diseases; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic
• Other Study ID Numbers: H-52019

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No