Telerehabilitation with telemonitoring provided exercise capacity benefits similar to usual-care rehabilitation, with no significant difference in peak oxygen consumption (SMD 0.160).
Meta-Analysis (n=782)
Does telerehabilitation provide comparable exercise capacity benefits to traditional cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with cardiac and pulmonary conditions?
Telerehabilitation provides similar exercise capacity benefits to traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs, offering a viable alternative to overcome access barriers.
Effect estimate: SMD 0.160 (95% CI -0.065 to 0.386)
p-value: p=0.16
Background: Despite exercise capacity and quality-of-life benefits, pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes are not easily accessed because of several barriers. A solution may be telerehabilitation (TR), in which patients exercise in their communities while they are monitored via teletechnology. However, the benefits of TR for the purposes of PR and CR have not been systematically reviewed. Objective: To determine whether the benefits of the exercise component of PR and CR using TR are comparable to usual-care (UC) programmes. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed of the Medline, Embase, and CINAHL databases up to July 13, 2015. Meta-analyses were performed for peak oxygen consumption, peak workload, exercise test duration, and 6-minute walk test (6MWT) distance using the I 2 statistic and forest plots displaying standardized mean difference (SMD). Results: Of 1,431 citations found, 8 CR studies met the inclusion criteria. No differences were found in exercise outcomes between UC and TR groups for CR studies, except in exercise test duration, which slightly favoured UC (SMD 0.268, 95% CI: 0.002, 0.534, p<0.05). Only 1 PR study was included, and it showed similar improvements on the 6MWT between the UC and TR groups. Conclusion: TR for patients with cardiac conditions provided benefits similar to UC with no adverse effects reported. Similar studies of TR for patients with pulmonary conditions need to be conducted.
Chan et al. (Thu,) conducted a meta-analysis in Cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=782). Telerehabilitation with telemonitoring vs. Usual-care rehabilitation was evaluated on Peak oxygen consumption (VO2 peak) (SMD 0.160, 95% CI -0.065 to 0.386, p=0.16). Telerehabilitation with telemonitoring provided exercise capacity benefits similar to usual-care rehabilitation, with no significant difference in peak oxygen consumption (SMD 0.160).