Research Article Physical Activity in Hemodialysis Patients Measured by Triaxial Accelerometer

Copyright © 2015 Edimar Pedrosa Gomes et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Different factors can contribute to a sedentary lifestyle among hemodialysis (HD) patients, including the period they spend on dialysis.The aim of this study was to evaluate characteristics of physical activities in daily life in this population by using an accurate triaxial accelerometer and to correlate these characteristics with physiological variables. NineteenHDpatients were evaluated using the DynaPort accelerometer and compared to nineteen control individuals, regarding the time spent in different activities and positions of daily life and the number of steps taken. HD patients were more sedentary than control individuals, spending less time walking or standing and spending more time lying down. The sedentary behavior was more pronounced on dialysis days. According to the number of steps taken per day, 47.4 % of hemodialysis patients were classified as sedentary against 10.5 % in control group. Hemoglobin level, lower extremity muscle strength, and physical functioning of SF-36 questionnaire correlated significantly with the walking time and active time. Looking accurately at the patterns of activity in daily life, HDs patients are more sedentary