International Journal of COPD (Oct 2023)
Effects of Home-Based Training with Internet Telehealth Guidance in COPD Patients Entering Pulmonary Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review
Abstract
Martin Hartman,1 Jitka Mináriková,1 Ladislav Batalik,2,3 Garyfallia Pepera,4 Jing Jing Su,5 Magno F Formiga,6 Lawrence Cahalin,7 Filip Dosbaba1,2 1Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic; 2Department of Rehabilitation, University Hospital Brno, Brno, 62500, Czech Republic; 3Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University Brno, Brno, 62500, Czech Republic; 4Clinical Exercise Physiology and Rehabilitation Research Laboratory, Physiotherapy Department, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece; 5School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China; 6Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Medicina, Departamento de Fisioterapia, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil; 7Department of Physical Therapy, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Coral Gables, FL, USACorrespondence: Martin Hartman, Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, University Hospital Motol, V Úvalu 84, Prague, 150 06, Czech Republic, Tel +420 224439200, Fax +420 224439201, Email [email protected]: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Telehealth rehabilitation may offer new opportunities in patient therapy. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effects of internet-mediated telerehabilitation and compare them with the outcomes of conventional pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients.Methods: Electronic databases PubMed, Prospero, Scopus, and Cochrane were searched for randomized controlled trials from January 2005 to December 2021. Two investigators reviewed studies for relevance and extracted study population, methods, and results data.Results: Ten studies were eligible for systematic review from the initial selection (n = 1492). There was considerable heterogeneity in telerehabilitation approaches. Functional exercise capacity and quality of life were assessed in all studies. None of the results were inferior to conventional care. High adherence and high levels of safety were observed.Conclusion: Telerehabilitation in COPD patients is a safe therapy approach that increases and maintains functional exercise capacity and quality of life, making it an equivalent option to conventional outpatient rehabilitation. However, there is currently a lack of a unified approach to the composition of therapy and the use of technology, which needs to be addressed in the future.Keywords: telehealth, telerehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation, pulmonary disease, exercise