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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
Patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) face elevated risks of falls and frequently suffer from significant post-dialysis fatigue. Falls are a major safety concern, as approximately 30% to 60% of HD patients experience a fall within one year, with recurrence estimated between 22% and 37%. While physical activity has demonstrated benefits in various populations, including the reduction of falls in frail older adults, there are few studies directly evaluating the effects of intradialytic aerobic exercise on fall incidence in this population. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of an intradialytic aerobic exercise program on the incidence of falls and fatigue in HD patients.
This was a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) involving forty-three patients recruited from a single HD unit. Patients were randomized into an Intervention Group (IG,n=17) and a Control Group (CG, n=26). Participants were older than 18 years old, had been on regular HD for over three months, were clinically stable, and did not practice regular, organized physical activity. The IG performed a supervised aerobic exercise program using a cycle ergometer for 30 minutes, twice a week, over twelve-week period. Exercise intensity was progressively increased from "light-to-moderate" in the first six weeks to "moderate-to-intense" in the last six weeks, based on the BORG Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale. The exercise generally began after the first hour of dialysis. The CG maintained their usual treatment routine without in-dialysis exercise. Self-reported falls were monitored weekly in both groups. Pre- and post-intervention outcomes included the incidence of falls, the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test.
The study was prematurely terminated due to a clear benefit observed in the falls outcome during an interim analysis. The intervention group (IG) showed a significant and representative reduction (96.4%) in the incidence of falls compared to the CG (10%), with strong statistical power (p<0.001; Power=0.984). The median number of falls before the intervention (3.35 fall/patient) significantly reduced in the IG post-intervention (0.12fall/patient). The IG did not show a significant reduction in self-reported fatigue levels (MFIS). However, the MFIS mean decreased significantly in both the CG (p<0.001) and the IG (p=0.006), although the magnitude of effect was small for the IG. There was no significant improvement in the TUG test in either group. The 6MWT (TC6) did show a significant improvement in the IG (p=0.014).
Intradialytic aerobic exercise is a viable, simple, and highly effective strategy for decreasing the incidence of falls in patients undergoing HD. This significant reduction in falls was observed despite the absence of a significant improvement in self-reported fatigue (MFIS) and most functional tests (TUG). This suggests that the mechanism for fall reduction may be attributed to other factors, such as improved balance, motor coordination, or hemodynamic stability.
