Perceived barriers and benefits of exercises in post dialysis patients- a survey.

Chronic diseases are the main challenges in health systems that impose enormous healthcare costs for societies and governments. Chronic kidney diseases (CKD), is considered a major health problem worldwide. An irreversible decrease in kidney function among patients with CKD ultimately progresses them to end stage kidney disease (ESKD) .There are about 3,730,000patients with CKD worldwide and annual growth of this disease is 5-6%.Individuals undergoing dialysis are considerably less physically active as compared to individuals with milder stages of kidney disease. While there is a  need for promoting physical activity and exercise participation in dialysis patients, which  is widely recognized in international and national guidelines. Thus understanding individual-level barriers and benefits may help increase participation in exercises.

There is increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease in India. Literature shows that 129 per million undergoes dialysis, with frequency of dialysis being two or three times per week.There is a taboo about exercises to be performed in patients undergoing dialysis .Patients are unaware about exercises which can be performed during this period. Evidence shows CKD patients are bound to develop “Inactivity triad” which consists of Exercise deficit disorder, Physical illiteracy & sarcopenia.The exercise not only reduces the complications of hemodialysis but also decreases the mortality rate of these patients and improves cardiovascular function, blood pressure, muscle strength, nutritional status, and dialysis quality. Inspite of all this positive benefits of exercises, patientswih dialysis hardly enagage themselves in exercises.To bring change in them  ,first we need to understand what are the barriers with respect to exercises and also to understand perceived benefits of exercises.