Face-to-Face Mentoring, Remotely Supervised Home Exercise Prehabilitation to Improve Physical Function in Patients Awaiting Kidney Transplantation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of home exercise prehabilitation on a new social platform for remote guidance to optimize the physical function of patients with end-stage renal disease awaiting kidney transplantation and provide scientific guidance on home prehabilitation exercises for patients awaiting kidney transplantation. MethodsThe subjects of this randomized clinical trial were randomly divided into the test and control groups. The control group maintained their exercise habits, while the trial group was given a 12-week personalized home prehabilitation exercise prescription (aerobic exercise + functional resistance exercise + flexibility exercise) on a new social platform with remote guidance. The participants' physical and cardiorespiratory fitness, quality of life, and psychological functioning were assessed before and after the intervention. The 6-min walk test (6MWT) walking distance and its percentage of attainment, the handgrip, the 5 repetition-sit-to-stand test, and the 4-m gait speed were used as primary outcome indicators, while the Short Form Health Survey SF-36 (health survey summary table) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale were used as the secondary outcome indicators. ResultsAfter 12 weeks of intervention, the changes in the 6MWT measured distance (+ 44.9 +/- 40.2, P = 0.001) and the percentage of 6MWT measured distance achieved (+ 6.8 +/- 5.7, P = 0.001), the handgrip (+ 2.7 +/- 4.3, P = 0.028), the 5-sit-to-stand test (-1.1 +/- 1.4, P = 0.005), and the 4-m walking speed (-0.3 +/- 0.4, P < 0.001) of the test group (n = 21) improved significantly. In the control group (n = 16), the changes in the 6MWT measured distance (-13.1 +/- 57.2), the 6MWT measured distance attainment percentage (-2.1 +/- 9.1), the handgrip (-0.1 +/- 2.5), the 5-sit-to-stand test value (0.6 +/- 2.2), and the 4-m walking speed (0.2 +/- 0.5) showed no significant difference. No significant improvement in anxiety, depression, and SF-36 was noted in both the test and control groups. ConclusionThe remote coaching of home exercise pre-habilitation on a new social platform significantly improves the physical and cardiopulmonary fitness of patients with end-stage renal disease awaiting kidney transplantation. This treatment is safe and feasible in this population.