Abstract
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health burden with high costs to the health system. It is associated with increased morbidity and mortality as well as a reduced quality of life. With the increase in the number of maintenance hemodialysis patients, debilitating conditions of muscle wasting and atrophy have become one of the biggest concerns for patients with CKD.
Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluation and measure the physical performance level of patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing regular hemodialysis through using a short physical performance battery (SPPB) scale.
Methods: A descriptive design study (cross-sectional) was conducted on participants selected from the Dialysis Kidney Unit at Al-Sadder Medical Hospital in Al-Najaf City in order to achieve the study aim. The period of study is from 20th December 2020 to 28th February 2021. A Non- Probability (purposive sample) technique was used consisted of (62) patients who are medically diagnosed with CKD and undergoing hemodialysis included in the present study. The data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of three parts, including socio-demographic, clinical data form, and short physical performance battery (SPPB) scale.
Results: Show that there is a significant difference between means throughout three periods of test-1 (6.10), test-2 (6.16), and test-3 (5.40) at P=0.024, that the levels of all of the physical performance are below the predicted levels at the baseline evaluation and they still deteriorate even at the third evaluation The results indicated that the poor physical performance of patients suffer from chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis treatment.
Conclusion: Patients with chronic kidney disease and undergoing hemodialysis have a low level of physical performance. This result is related to the physical activity regarding the population on hemodialysis, not being related to the demographic and clinical data evaluated.

Key words: Evaluation, Physical activity, Hemodialysis, Physical performance