Background and purpose: Patients undergoing hemodialysis, regardless of age, suffer from impaired physical function. Many problems caused by lack of mobility affect different dimensions of their lives. Exercise training, commensurate with the ability and willingness of hemodialysis patients could be of great benefit in dealing with the lack of physical activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intradialytic and home-based walking exercises on physical function and adequacy of hemodialysis patients.
Materials and methods: In a clinical trial, 60 hemodialysis patients were randomly selected from two hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Patients in the exercise group performed the exercise program for eight weeks (two weeks during dialysis and six weeks at home). The six-minute walk test (6MWt) was used to measure physical function and KT/V and URR values were used to measure the dialysis adequacy.
Results: In the six-minute walk test, the mean distance walked by the exercise group was significantly different from that in the control group (P˂ 0.015).  According to the KT/V and URR values, the adequacy of dialysis in patients in the exercise group increased, although this increase was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Exercise activities such as the program designed can improve physical function in hemodialysis patients. These activities are recommended for such patients since they are easily done at any time and place without any special equipment, have no complications, and are low cost.