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The following is a summary of “Exploring interventions to support life participation for adults with chronic kidney disease: a scoping review,” published in the May 2025 issue of BMC Nephrology by Correa et al. 

Individuals living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) faced substantial health-related challenges that limited their ability to participate in daily life, with recent studies recognizing life participation as a key priority.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to comprehensively identify interventions targeting life participation outcomes in adults with predialysis CKD and to highlight gaps in the existing literature.  

They applied the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology; 5 electronic databases were searched, and additional sources were retrieved through backward chaining and 4 screeners independently reviewed titles and abstracts following initial inter-rater calibration and 2 researchers screened full texts and extracted data in duplicate. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis.  

The results showed that 23 studies were identified evaluating interventions aimed at supporting life participation in individuals with CKD. None of the studies focused on life participation as a primary outcome. Based on the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E), 87% of interventions targeted personal-physical mechanisms of disability, with 48% involving pharmacologic approaches and 35% involving exercise. Specific outcome measures for life participation were infrequently applied, with the role-physical, role-emotional, and social functioning subscales of the SF-36 QoL tool being the most common.   

Investigators concluded that life participation in CKD had been underrepresented in research, with limited intervention strategies and inadequate outcome assessment. 

Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-025-04162-8