Abstract
Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on functional exercise capacity seemed quickly clinically evident. The objective of this study was to assess the functional exercise capacity of patients with severe COVID-19 and to evaluate the effect of a telerehabilitation program in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method: Patients hospitalized for severe or critical COVID-19 were recruited. The functional exercise capacity (1-min sit-to-stand test (STST)) was prospectively quantified at discharge. A telerehabilitation program was then proposed. A control group was composed with the patients refusing the program.
Results: At discharge, none of the 48 recruited patients had a STST higher than the 50th percentile and 77% of them were below the 2.5th percentile. SpO2 was 92.6 ± 3.0% after STST and 15 patients had oxygen desaturation. After 3-months of follow-up, the number of repetitions during STST significantly increased either in telerehabilitation (n = 14) (p < 0.001) or in control groups (n = 13) (p = 0.002) but only one patient had a result higher than the 50th percentile (in Telerehabilitation group) and 37% of them were still under the 2.5th percentile for this result. The improvement was significantly and clinically greater after the telerehabilitation program (p = 0.005). No adverse events were reported by the patients during the program.
Conclusions: Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 have a low functional exercise capacity at discharge and the recovery after three months is poor. The feasibility and the effect of a simple telerehabilitation program were verified, this program being able to substantially improve the functional recovery after three months.
Keywords: COVID; Functional exercise capacity; Telerehabilitation.
【저자키워드】 COVID, telerehabilitation, Functional exercise capacity, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Hospitalized, severe COVID-19, feasibility, COVID-19 pandemic, Exercise capacity, oxygen, discharge, Desaturation, adverse event, Patient, Follow-up, telerehabilitation, Critical, control group, SpO2, repetition, significantly increased, IMPROVE, greater, significantly, recruited, reported, the patient, composed, clinically, functional, evaluate the effect, quantified, 【제목키워드】 Exercise capacity, Patient, functional,