To understand the latent profiles of kinesiophobia in kidney transplant recipients and explore the influencing factors of different profiles.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 230 kidney transplant recipients subjected with convenient sampling from Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from November 2024 to February 2025. General Information Questionnaire, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-11 (TSK-11), Exercise Compliance Questionnaire, Fatigue Scale-14 (FS-14), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Chinese Version of the Self-Efficacy to Manage Chronic Disease Scale (C-SEMCD) were used for investigation and latent profile analysis. Univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis were applied to explore the influencing factors of different profiles.

Kinesiophobia in the participants was classified into 3 latent profiles: fearless movement type-low kinesiophobia group (54 cases, 23.48%), cautious movement type-moderate kinesiophobia group (98 cases, 42.61%), and resistant movement type-high kinesiophobia group (78 cases, 33.91%). Statistical differences were observed among the 3 groups in terms of age, education level, post-operative duration, depression score, fatigue score, and self-efficacy score of chronic disease management (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR=8.82, 95%CI: 1.27~61.10), education level [junior high school or below (OR=0.14, 95%CI: 0.04~0.50); technical secondary school or senior high school (OR=0.08, 95%CI: 0.02~0.27)], post-operative duration [<1 year (OR=11.39, 95%CI: 2.53~51.30); 1-5 years (OR=11.05, 95%CI: 2.48~49.22)], fatigue (OR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.10~1.59), and depression (OR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.19~1.98) were influencing factors for resistant movement type-high kinesiophobia in the kidney transplant recipients. Education level (technical secondary school or senior high school: OR=0.32, 95%CI: 0.12-0.86) and self-efficacy of chronic disease management (OR=0.95, 95%CI: 0.90-1.00) were influencing factors for cautious movement type-moderate kinesiophobia in the recipients.

Kinesiophobia in kidney transplant recipients can be classified into 3 latent profiles. Recipients’ age, education level, post-operative duration, fatigue, and depression are influencing factors for the resistant movement type-high kinesiophobia, and education level and chronic disease management self-efficacy are important influencing factors for the cautious movement type-moderate kinesiophobia.