Background
Tele-rehabilitation for stroke survivors has emerged as a promising intervention for
remotely supervised administration of physical, occupational, speech, and other forms
of therapies aimed at improving motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric deficits from
stroke.
Objective
We aimed to provide an updated systematic review on the efficacy of tele-rehabilitation
interventions for recovery from motor, higher cortical dysfunction, and poststroke
depression among stroke survivors.
Methods
We searched PubMed and Cochrane library from January 1, 1980 to July 15, 2017 using
the following keywords: “Telerehabilitation stroke,” “Mobile health rehabilitation,”
“Telemedicine stroke rehabilitation,” and “Telerehabilitation.” Our inclusion criteria
were randomized controlled trials, pilot trials, or feasibility trials that included
an intervention group that received any tele-rehabilitation therapy for stroke survivors
compared with a control group on usual or standard of care.
Results
This search yielded 49 abstracts. By consensus between 2 investigators, 22 publications
met the criteria for inclusion and further review. Tele-rehabilitation interventions
focused on motor recovery (n = 18), depression, or caregiver strain (n = 2) and higher
cortical dysfunction (n = 2). Overall, tele-rehabilitation interventions were associated
with significant improvements in recovery from motor deficits, higher cortical dysfunction,
and depression in the intervention groups in all studies assessed, but significant
differences between intervention versus control groups were reported in 8 of 22 studies
in favor of tele-rehabilitation group while the remaining studies reported nonsignificant
differences.
Conclusion
This updated systematic review provides evidence to suggest that tele-rehabilitation
interventions have either better or equal salutary effects on motor, higher cortical,
and mood disorders compared with conventional face-to-face therapy.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 04, 2018
Accepted:
May 9,
2018
Received in revised form:
April 20,
2018
Received:
March 7,
2018
Footnotes
Grant support: National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke; R21 NS094033; National Institute of Health-Forgarty International Center R21 TW010479-01.
Conflict of interest: All authors have none to declare.
Identification
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2018.05.013
Copyright
© 2018 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
