Background: hemodialysis patients suffer from impaired functional ability. Several pilot studies have been conducted concerning the effect of home-based exercise on functional ability of hemodialysis patients; however, there have been observed some contradictions between the results of these studies. The aim of this study was, therefore, to determine the effects of home-based exercise on functional ability of hemodialysis patients using meta-analysis.

Methods: In this review study, for the purpose of finding studies published electronically form 2000 to 2016, the papers published in journals indexed in the databases of “PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar Cochrane” were used. Also, to analyze the full text of these articles, Stata Software Version 11 was used. Heterogeneity index between the studies was determined using Cochran (Q) c and I2 tests. Since heterogeneity was observed between the studies, a random effect model was used to estimate the mean score of the standardized difference of a 6-minute walk test in order to measure the functional ability of hemodialysis patients in two experimental and comparison groups.

Results: Four articles were finally selected in this meta-analysis. 68 patients were in the experimental group and 65 were in the control group. After the intervention, the mean score of the standardized difference of a 6-minute walk test in the experimental group with a confidence interval of 95% was 0.21 (-0.15, 0.57) units more than before the intervention, which was statistically not significant.

Conclusion: The results of the meta-analysis showed that home-based exercise increased the functional ability of hemodialysis patients although this effect was not significant.