Otobe Y, Yamada M, Hiraki K, et al. - Among older adults with pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD), a significant improvement of the memory function was shown to be conferred by a 24-week exercise intervention implemented in this study. Physical exercise affords a beneficial nonpharmacological solution to prevent cognitive decline in such patients.

• In this randomized controlled trial, 60 outpatients (aged ≥65 years) with CKD stage G3–G4 were randomized (single-center, unblinded, and stratified) and 53 received the allocated intervention (exercise n = 27, control n = 26).

• In the exercise group, patients undertook group-exercise training once weekly and independent exercises at home twice weekly or more, for 24 weeks; whereas the control group was provided the general care.

• The observed changes in Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Logical Memory delayed recall (exercise effect: 2.82) and immediate and delayed recall (exercise effect: 5.97) scores were significantly greater in the exercise group patients vs those in the control group.