Association Between Lifestyle Modifications and Renal Function Decline in Elderly Diabetic Nephropathic Patients: a Meta-Analysis Approach

The aim of the study was to examine the association between lifestyle modifications and renal function decline in elderly diabetic nephropathic patients. Information has been gathered from 10 studies with a total of 315,782 patients. The pooled effect size was 0.835 which indicates a positive effect of interventions. The important findings included the efficiency of the low-sodium diets with an effect size of 5.2. It has been observed that physical exercise has a major role to play in the improvement of renal outcome. Furthermore, combined measures showed better results than isolated strategies. On the other hand, heterogeneity was significant, with the value of I2 being 843%, as seen through different study designs and samples. The findings suggest that lifestyle changes are crucial for the management of renal decline. However, for consistent results, it is necessary to use standardised measures.