The Effect of Exercise on Sleep Guality in the Elderly Undergoing Hemodialysis

The elderly population in the world as well as in Iran has a growing trend, which can indicate a significant increase in chronic diseases, especially renal failure in the elderly and its associated complications, including sleep disorders, which cause trouble in daily activities and quality. Life goes down in these patients. Therefore, have been decided to conduct a study using exercise and its effect on sleep quality in elderly patients undergoing hemodialysis.

The present study is an experimental study that was conducted to investigate the effect of exercise on sleep quality in the elderly with Sheldon venous catheter undergoing hemodialysis referred to Ghiasi Charity Center in Tehran in 2020. This center covers 200 patients, of which 40 are active elderly patients over 60 years of age, 30 of whom met the inclusion criteria, which were randomly selected by lottery method (writing their names on paper) into two groups, the intervention and control groups (15 people in each group) were assigned. Initially, the cognitive health of the elderly was assessed using a short cognitive test tool, all of them had cognitive health. In the experimental group, one of sample was hospitalized and two were transferred to another dialysis center, thus, they were removed from the samples. Research tools included demographic information form, Abbreviated Mental Test and Sleep Quality questionnaire. The Abbreviated Mental Test(AMT) tool, developed by Hodkinson in 1972 to screen for cognitive disorders such as dementia and delirium in the elderly, to identify the elderly with dementia and remove them from the study. The tool includes 10 short and simple questions to measure orientation, focus and attention, short-term and long-term memory of the elderly, each item of which has 1 point and the sum of the resulting scores is 10. The cut-off point for distinguishing cognitive status is 7 out of 10, which normalizes status from abnormal. Foroughan et al. (2014) in Iran have translated this tool into Persian. The validation and internal reliability of the Persian version of this tool with Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient of 0.76 has been acceptable. The Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was developed by Buysse et al in 1989 and has 9 items, of which 5 questions contain 10 sub-items, so the whole questionnaire has 18 items. These questions are in seven components : Subjective sleep quality, Sleep latency, Sleep duration, sleep efficiency, Sleep disturbance, Use of sleep medication, Daytime dysfunction. The score of each question is between 0 to 3 scores of the questionnaire from 0 to 21. The higher the score, the lower the quality of sleep. Dr. Buysse et al. Obtained the internal consistency of the questionnaire using Cronbachchr('39')s alpha of 0.83. Farahi Moghadam et al. (2012) have also confirmed the validity and reliability of this questionnaire in Iran; Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient of this questionnaire was 0.78 to 0.82. All instruments were completed by asking the elderly at two times, before the start of the study and in the eighth week of the study. In order to intervention in the experimental group, the elderly performed a sports activity protocol designed by a sports physiologist with the help of a researcher and under the supervision of the centerchr('39')s physiotherapist for 8 weeks and 3 times a week during dialysis. Exercises were performed due to the age of the samples in bed and during dialysis. In the first week, because the exercises were light and it was not possible to warm up and cool down in the real sense, the time to start the first exercise activity was 30 minutes in the first week. Then, 35 minutes in the second week, 40 minutes in the third week, 45 minutes in the fourth week, week. The fifth and sixth week were considered 50 minutes. One-half of the exercise time was devoted to aerobic exercise with a minibike (small bike) with arms and legs, and the rest of the time was equally devoted to other resistance exercise. In the first session, the method of conducting research, the rules of participating in the sessions, the impact of exercises on the body and how to do exercises were presented. At the beginning of each exercise session in the intervention group, vital signs were assessed and with the permission of the physician, the patient participated in exercise. Exercise started 30 minutes after the start of dialysis and stabilization of the patient. In the control group, except for routine interventions, no intervention is performed, but they were assured that if the research results are effective in the experimental group, exercise sessions will be held for them.

By comparing the quality of sleep between the first and eighth week of research in the experimental group, it was found that after exercise, sleep quality improved significantly (p <0.0001) but in control group the sleep quality between the first and eighth week of the study was significant reduced (P = 0.001). Comparison of the mean of sleep quality between the experimental and control groups before the study was statistically significant (P = 0.035). The control group had better sleep quality but the mean of sleep quality between the two groups in the eighth week of the study was significant (p <0.0001) and sleep quality was better in the experimental group than the control group.

The results of this study, in addition to being effective in increasing nursing knowledge, can also be used as a safe and low-cost method to improve sleep quality in the elderly undergoing hemodialysis