RT journal article
T1 Effectiveness of Digital Physiotherapy Practice Compared to Usual Care in Long COVID Patients: A Systematic Review
A1 Estebanez-Pérez, María José
A1 Martín Valero, Rocío
A1 Viñolo Gil, María Jesús
A1 Pastora-Bernal, José Manuel
A2 Enfermería y Fisioterapia
K1 digital physiotherapy practice
K1 telerehabilitation
K1 telemedicine
K1 Long COVID
K1 persistent COVID syndrome
AB Long COVID syndrome has been recognized as a public health problem. Digital physiotherapy practice is an alternative that can better meet the needs of patients. The aim of this review wasto synthesize the evidence of digital physiotherapy practice in Long COVID patients. A systematicreview was carried out until December 2022. The review was complemented by an assessment of therisk of bias and methodological quality. A narrative synthesis of results was conducted, includingsubgroup analyses by intervention and clinical outcomes. Six articles, including 540 participants, wereselected. Five articles were considered of high enough methodological quality. Parallel-group, singleblind, randomized controlled trials were the most commonly used research design. Tele-supervisedhome-based exercise training was the most commonly used intervention. Great heterogeneity inclinical outcomes and measurement tools was found. A subgroup analysis showed that digitalphysiotherapy is effective in improving clinical outcomes. Significant differences in favor of digitalinterventions over usual care were reported. Nevertheless, discrepancies regarding effectivenesswere found. Improvements in clinical outcomes with digital physiotherapy were found to be at leastnon-inferior to usual care. This review provides new evidence that digital physiotherapy practice isan appropriate intervention for Long COVID patients, despite the inherent limitations of the review.Registration: CRD42022379004.
PB MDPI
SN 2227-9032
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/31800
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/31800
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026