ABSTRACT
Objective To systematically review whether mirror therapy(MT)intervention can effectively improve upper extremity motor function and activities of daily living(ADL)in stroke patients;whether its improvement is affected by pa-tients'age and disease course;and whether MT's influencing factors,such as intervention period,time,and fre-quency,have a dosage effect on upper extremity motor function and ADL. Methods Seven databases were searched,including Embase,Web of Science,PubMed,Cochrane Library,Wanfang data,VIP and CNKI from establishment to April,2023,and randomized controlled trials of MT for upper extremity motor function and ADL in stroke patients were screened.Quality assessment was performed using Physiothera-py Evidence Database(PEDro).Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4.1,and network meta-analysis was performed using R software,reticulated meta-analysis tables and cumulative probability tables were drawn for ranked comparisons,and funnel plots were drawn to test for publication bias of the outcome indicators using Stata 17.0 software.GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of evidence for the outcome indicators. Results A total of 13 papers(532 patients)were included.The PEDro score ranged from 6 to 8.Most of the literature did not report the blinding completely or did not implement allocation concealment,which might have some limita-tions.MT could improve the scores of Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremities(n = 466,MD = 6.05,95%CI 3.44～8.66,P<0.001),Barthel index(n = 230,MD = 9.95,95%CI 6.23～13.68,P<0.001)and Functional Inde-pendence Measure(n = 147,MD = 4.17,95%CI 2.61～5.72,P<0.001)in stroke patients.Network meta-analysis showed that MT was more effective in upper limb motor function intervention for stroke patients aged 40 to 59 years with a disease course less than three months;and an intervention period less than four weeks,single inter-vention time less than 30 minutes,intervention duration daily more than 30 minutes and intervention twice daily might optimize the effects on upper limb motor function. Conclusion MT is effective on upper limb motor function and ADL in stroke patients,and the effect on upper limb mo-tor function is affected by the age and disease course of the patients,as well as the period,time and frequency of intervention.