Habitual physical activity and sleep in adults with end-stage renal disease

Background: Treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is necessary to maintain life. However, it can cause physiological, psychosocial, and cognitive impairments, which may impact physical activity (PA) and sleep, although there is insufficient device-based data to elucidate such impacts.

Methods: PA, sedentary time and sleep were measured over seven consecutive days in 12 adults with ESRD (9 dialysing at home, 3 dialysing in-centre) using wrist-worn accelerometers. Validated raw acceleration thresholds were used to quantify time spent in each PA intensity domain and sedentary, and sleep duration and efficiency.

Results: Adults with ESRD engaged in little moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA; 6.9 ± 9.7 mins•day^-1) and spent 770.0 ± 68.6 mins•day^-1being sedentary. People dialysing at home engaged in more light-intensity PA than those attending in-centre (131.2 ± 28.1 vs 106.9 ± 5.4 mins•day^-1, respectively; p = 0.05; ES = 0.56), however neither group met the recommended guidelines for daily MVPA. Individuals with ESRD slept for an average of 286.8 ± 79.3 mins•night^-1 with an efficiency of 68.4 ± 18.5%, although people dialysing at home slept for longer and more efficiently (74.5% vs. 50.0%, p = 0.07, ES = 0.51) than those attending in-centre.

Conclusion: This study suggests that adults with ESRD engage in less total PA than recommended guidelines and are characterised by poor sleep duration and efficiency. Moreover, results indicate that dialysis mode may influence PA, sedentary time and sleep, with those dialysing at home engaging in greater LPA and achieving a greater sleep duration and efficiency.