PTRNCohortJournal of renal care2025

Changes in Physical Activity Among Spanish Kidney Transplant Recipients: A 12-Month Longitudinal Study.

Emilia Ferrer-López, Víctor Cantín-Lahoz, Francisco Javier Rubio-Castañeda and 3 others

PMID 40838857

WHAT IT FOUND

Kidney transplant recipients reported lower activity at 3 months after surgery.

Activity partly rebounded at 6 months, then fell again, and was lower at 12 months than before transplant.

Key findings

01The study reported median weekly activity as 1735 MET-min/week before transplant, 1386 at 3 months, 1906 at 6 months, and 1386 at 12 months.

02Vigorous activity was reported by 53% before transplant and 45% at 12 months, while moderate activity rose from 31% before transplant to 48% at 12 months.

03At 12 months, men reported higher activity than women, but both groups were below their pre-transplant levels.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs

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What it does not show

Activity was measured by questionnaire, not by a movement sensor, so people may overestimate or misremember how active they were. Before-transplant activity was asked after surgery, based on recall, which can bias the baseline. All participants were from the same hospital and were independent in daily activities, so results may not apply to less independent or differently aged groups. The study did not test an exercise programme, so it cannot show that any intervention changed activity. Diet, psychological factors, and prior exercise education were not measured, so they may explain some patterns.

The easy way to misread this

Do not conclude that kidney transplantation itself caused activity to fall, or that any exercise programme would fix the drop. This was an observational study with no control group or intervention, so it can only describe reported activity patterns.

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