Article

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 I2 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.

Langue : ANGLAIS