Association of physical activity with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis

The relationship between physical activity (PA) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) risk was inconsistent. We therefore conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis to comprehensively evaluate the association of PA and CKD.

A total of 14 studies from 13 articles with 353,975 participants were included. By comparing the highest vs. the lowest level of PA, we found that PA was inversely associated with CKD risk (odds ratio [OR] = 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91-0.98). Seven studies from 6 articles were included in dose-response analysis. Restricted cubic splines showed no evidence of a nonlinear dose-response relationship of PA and CKD risk (P_nonlinearity = 0.135). The risk of CKD was reduced by 2% (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.96-1.00) with each 10 metabolic equivalent h/week increment of PA.

The findings demonstrated that the higher level of PA might have a protective effect against the risk of CKD.

Electronic databases PubMed and Embase were searched up to March 11, 2020. Observational studies investigated the relationship between PA and CKD risk with estimated effects (relative risk, hazard ratio, or OR) with 95 % CI among adults were included.