1328 Int. J. Morphol., 40(5):1328-1334, 2022. Somatotype Characteristics of Patients with Non-Dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease and its Relationships with Physical Activity and Depression Características del Somatotipo de Pacientes con Enfermedad Renal Crónica sin Diálisis y su Relación con la Actividad Física y la Depresión Fahri Safa Cinarli 1 ; Rukiye Ciftci 2 ; Sena Cinarli 3 & Özkan Ulutas 4 CINARLI, F. S.; CIFTCI, R.; CINARLI, S. & ULUTAS, O. Somatotype characteristics of patients with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease and its relationships with physical activity and depression. Int. J. Morphol., 40(5):1328-1334, 2022. SUMMARY: Somatotype characters have been defined for many diseases. However, there is insufficient information on the somatotype characters of chronic kidney patients. The first aim of our study was to define the specific somatotype in patients diagnosed with CKD. The second aim was to investigate the relationship between somatotype characters and physical activity and depression in CKD patients. A total of 88 (52.7 %) patients diagnosed with CKD between January and December 2021 at the Department of Nephrology, Inonu University Hospital (Malatya, Turkey) and 79 (47.3 %) healthy volunteers were included in the study. Somatotype analysis was performed using the Heath-Carter method. Physical activity was assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Analysis revealed that patients had greater medial calf girth (p = 0.036), higher triceps (p = 0.007) and suprailiac (p = 0.042) skinfold thicknesses and higher body mass index (p = 0.007) compared to controls. Patients also had significantly higher endomorphy (patients: 6.57±1.35 vs. controls: 6.04±1.3; effect size (ES): 0.40, p=0.010) and significantly higher mesomorphy (patients: 7.44±2 vs. controls: 6.85±2.3; ES: 0.27, p=0.039) as well as significantly lower ectomorphy (patients: 0.71±0.69 vs. controls: 1.10±0.93; ES: 0.47, p=0.006). Significant positive correlations were also observed between mesomorphy and IPAQ (rho = 0.219, p = 0.04), endomorphy and BDI (rho = 0.423, p < 0.001) and mesomorphy and BDI (rho = 0.392, p > 0.001). Significant negative correlations were observed between ectomorph and BDI (rho = -0.325, p = 0.002). We observed that the dominant somatotype was endomorphic mesomorph in patients with CKD. In addition, the fact that CKD patients with ectomorphic body structure have lower depressive symptoms could have an impact on their well-being. KEY WORDS: Chronic kidney disease; Depression; Obesity; Phsyical activity; Somatotype. INTRODUCTION Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a leading public health problem worldwide, as it is associated with high mortality and morbidity in the adult population (Kalantar-Zadeh et al., 2021). In the 2022 update on the epidemiology of chronic kidney disease, Kovesdy defines CKD as one of the few non-communicable diseases that have seen an increase in associated deaths has increased over the last 2 decades (Kovesdy, 2022). In addition to known risk factors such as age, sex, genetic component, race/ethnicity, family history, nephrotoxins, hepatitis C vi- rus, human immunodeficiency virus infection, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidaemia and metabolic syndrome, some researchers have defined an abnormal increase in oxidative stress and chronic inflammation as an important pathogenetic role in the development of CKD (Kazancioglu, 2013; Tinti et al., 2021). Physical activity (PA) has been shown to improve vascular endothelial function in patients with CKD by increasing nitric oxide (NO) and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, PA reduces angiotensin levels II 1 Inonu University, Department of Movement and Training Science, Malatya, Turkey. 2 Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University, Department of Anatomy, Balıkesir, Turkey. 3 Inonu University, Institute of Health Sciences, Malatya, Turkey. 4 Inonu University, Department of Nephrology, Malatya, Turkey. Received: 2022-06-23 Accepted: 2022-08-26