Student’s t-test was used to verify whether the two groups differed significantly based on the comparison of their means, and ANOVA was used for the comparison of more than two groups. Student’s t-test was used for comparison of paired means. Pearson’s Selleck PR171 correlation coefficient was used to assess correlation.
Data were analyzed in SPSS 13.0 for Windows (IBM Corp, Armonk, USA) and Excel 2007 (Microsoft, Microsoft Excel,Washington, USA). A significance level of 5% was used in all tests. Of the total 127 children and adolescents with CKD treated at the Pediatric Nephrology Unit of IMIP, 40 were included in the study and 87 were excluded (31 due to incapacity to perform the 6MWT, 46 due to difficulties in understanding how to perform the respiratory tests, and ten for having complex heart disease or severe chronic lung disease). Of the 40 eligible patients, the mean age ± SD was 13 ± 2.6 years, 52.5% were males, 59.5% had educational delay, and 85% did not practice any physical activity. The mean final QoL score was 50.9 ± 16.5 for
the children and 51 ± 16.5 for the parents. The mean walked distance in meters at the 6MWT was 396 ± 71, whereas the mean walked distance predicted by the formula was 620.2 ± 44 meters, with a significant difference (p < 0.001), representing 63.7% of the predicted Pexidartinib datasheet values (Table 1). When comparing QoL and the type of treatment, it was observed that transplanted patients had the highest scores science (65.3) when compared to the group submitted to hemodialysis (37.7; p < 0.001) from the children's perception. Additionally, there was a significant association between QoL and gender from the parents’ and children's perception, where males had a better final QoL score (58.1 and 56.9, respectively). Regarding QoL and physical activity, it was observed that those who performed regular physical activity had a better QoL when compared to sedentary individuals (p = 0.002) from the children's perception. Comparing the means between the walked distance and the gender of
the child, it was observed that the distance walked by males was higher than females (p = 0.008) (Table 2). When analyzing the correlation between the distance walked in the 6MWT and the study variables, there was a significant positive correlation, i.e., the higher the values of the variables, the better the test performance regarding variables age, height, final PedsQLTM, FVC, predicted FVC, FEV1, and predicted FEV1. A negative correlation between FEV1/FVC and the walked distance was also observed, that is, the higher the ratio, the lower the test performance. The respiratory rate evaluated after the 6MWT showed a positive correlation with the difference between the walked and the expected distance (Table 3). The other variables analyzed in this study showed no significant correlation. The present study demonstrates that children and adolescents with CKD have a significant reduction in QoL and functional capacity.