Effectiveness of Home Tele-Rehabilitation in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review of The Literature

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the published studies on the scientific evidence of the effectiveness of home telerehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in particular to determine whether its benefits are not inferior to those of classic outpatient or inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation. A systematic review of the electronic databases Medline, Cochrane Library, PEDro, BMJ Best Practice, BMC Pulmonary Medicine, LILACS, academic search and ScienceDirect was performed to identify randomized controlled clinical trials, a parallel non-inferiority trial and a pilot study. Reference lists of selected studies were also reviewed for additional eligible articles focusing on telerehabilitation via videoconferencing (n = 2), one study focusing on an online respiratory therapist-delivered exercise program (n = 1), and one study focusing on a mobile phone-based COPD exercise program (n = 1). The telerehabilitation programs showed that exercise capacity and quality of life were not inferior to those of a hospital-based outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program. The level of scientific evidence is moderate. More high-quality studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of telerehabilitation in patients with COPD.