Aim: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important public health problem. Recently, CKD has been found to be associated with poor physical functioning in community-dwelling elderly individuals. However, the physical functioning of non-dialysis (ND) patients with advanced CKD treated by nephrologists is unknown.
Methods: Patients with ND-CKD stage G3b-5 who participated in a nationwide Reach-J CKD cohort study were included in this study. Physical functioning and physical activity were assessed by the Katz Index, Lawton-Body instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale, and Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity questionnaire of the international CKD Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (CKDopps) questionnaires. Dichotomies between good and poor physical functioning and physical activity scores were explored.
Results: Among 1,628 patients, 84.3% had good physical functioning. Poor physical functioning was more common with older age (p<0.001), higher CKD stage (p<0.05), and comorbid conditions such as diabetes (p<0.001), cardiovascular disease (p<0.05), cerebrovascular disease (p<0.001), and cancer (non-skin) (p<0.05). Forty percent of the patients were inactive. Physical inact