A telerehabilitation programme in post-discharge COVID-19 patients (TERECO): a randomised controlled trial.
Thorax
; 77(7): 697-706, 2022 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1327714
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To investigate superiority of a telerehabilitation programme for COVID-19 (TERECO) over no rehabilitation with regard to exercise capacity, lower limb muscle strength (LMS), pulmonary function, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and dyspnoea.DESIGN:
Parallel-group randomised controlled trial with 11 block randomisation.SETTING:
Three major hospitals from Jiangsu and Hubei provinces, China.PARTICIPANTS:
120 formerly hospitalised COVID-19 survivors with remaining dyspnoea complaints were randomised with 61 allocated to control and 59 to TERECO. INTERVENTION Unsupervised home-based 6-week exercise programme comprising breathing control and thoracic expansion, aerobic exercise and LMS exercise, delivered via smartphone, and remotely monitored with heart rate telemetry.OUTCOMES:
Primary outcome was 6 min walking distance (6MWD) in metres. Secondary outcomes were squat time in seconds; pulmonary function assessed by spirometry; HRQOL measured with Short Form Health Survey-12 (SF-12) and mMRC-dyspnoea. Outcomes were assessed at 6 weeks (post-treatment) and 28 weeks (follow-up).RESULTS:
Adjusted between-group difference in change in 6MWD was 65.45 m (95% CI 43.8 to 87.1; p<0.001) at post-treatment and 68.62 m (95% CI 46.39 to 90.85; p<0.001) at follow-up. Treatment effects for LMS were 20.12 s (95% CI 12.34 to 27.9; p<0.001) post-treatment and 22.23 s (95% CI 14.24 to 30.21; p<0.001) at follow-up. No group differences were found for lung function except post-treatment maximum voluntary ventilation. Increase in SF-12 physical component was greater in the TERECO group with treatment effects estimated as 3.79 (95% CI 1.24 to 6.35; p=0.004) at post-treatment and 2.69 (95% CI 0.06 to 5.32; p=0.045) at follow-up.CONCLUSIONS:
This trial demonstrated superiority of TERECO over no rehabilitation for 6MWD, LMS, and physical HRQOL. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER ChiCTR2000031834.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Telerehabilitation
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Thorax
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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