The Effects of Exercise Program on Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Hemodialysis

Thursday, 15 July 2010

Guey-Shiun Huang, PhD, RN
Department of Nursing, National Taiwan University, College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: know the low bone mass in the hemodialysis patients.

Learning Objective 2: know the improtance of exercise for hemodialysis patients.

Purpose: The purpose was to examine the effects of an exercise program on hemodialysis patients of their bone mass.
Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study in which data were collected from hemodialysis units at a medical center in northern Taiwan. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants who were assigned to an experimental group (participating in exercise sessions lasting from 20 to 30 minutes or more, three times per week for twelve weeks, for a total of 36 sessions) and a comparison group (who continued with existing medical care and life style) according to their individual preferences. Outcome indicators included bone mineral density (BMD) and blood biochemistry values. Data analysis consisted of basic characteristics and outcome indicators presented of descriptive statistics, and one-way ANCOVA was used to test the response to exercise.
Results: Participants numbered 28 in the experimental group and 31 in the comparison group. The two groups were homogeneous to each other. The mean age was 55.0 years. The prevalence of low bone mass was 73% in the femoral neck (FN) and 42% in the lumbar spine (LS). The exercise program was effective for slowing bone loss. Changes to FN-BMD and LS-BMD and even though a significant difference was seen only in the FN site, the rate of bone loss for the experimental group was slower than for the comparison group both for the FN and LS sites.
Conclusion: The results confirm the effectiveness of this exercise program as an intervention modality. The generalizablity should be conservative owing to the limitations of its research design and sampling method.