Telerehabilitation in Response to Critical Coronavirus: A Systematic Review Based on Current Evidence

Abstract

Background: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate and identify the latest evidence on the feasibility and accessibility of telerehabilitation services in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and control of patients with COVID-19. Methods: The studies were retrieved from the authoritative scientific databases Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed on November 25, 2021. Then, the gray literature was scrutinized using the Google search engine to identify the latest possible evidence. Randomized controlled trial studies and protocols that used the telerehabilitation approach as an intervention to improve the condition of distant COVID-19 patients were part of the inclusion criteria. In order to assess the quality of the studies entering this study, the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Randomized Controlled Trials was used. The same checklist was used for data extraction. Findings: A total of 7 eligible articles were obtained in this review. The quality assessment results showed that there was no significant bias in the studies and all studies were eligible to be included in our study. In two studies (3.7, 43%), telerehabilitation was used to support COVID-19 patient, both of which reported significant improvement in endurance, functional and physical condition of patients with telerehabilitation. However, no significant improvement was found in patients' pulmonary function parameters. In contrast, another study showed a significant improvement in shortness of breath and aerobic capacity of patients in the intervention group compared to the control. Conclusion: The results of the systematic review showed that a small number of small-scale studies on telerehabilitation have been performed for patients with COVID-19. However, it seems telerehabilitation has great potential to improve the functional, respiratory, physical condition and ultimately improve the quality of life of patients with COVID-19.

Keywords

• respiratory function
• telerehabilitation
• systematic review
• covid-19
• quality of life