Effects of Home-Based Training with Internet Telehealth Guidance in COPD Patients Entering Pulmonary Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Telehealth rehabilitation may offer new opportunities in patient therapy. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effects of internet-mediated telerehabilitation and compare them with the outcomes of conventional pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients.

Methods

Electronic databases PubMed, Prospero, Scopus, and Cochrane were searched for randomized controlled trials from January 2005 to December 2021. Two investigators reviewed studies for relevance and extracted study population, methods, and results data.

Results

Ten studies were eligible for systematic review from the initial selection (n = 1492). There was considerable heterogeneity in telerehabilitation approaches. Functional exercise capacity and quality of life were assessed in all studies. None of the results were inferior to conventional care. High adherence and high levels of safety were observed.

Conclusion

Telerehabilitation in COPD patients is a safe therapy approach that increases and maintains functional exercise capacity and quality of life, making it an equivalent option to conventional outpatient rehabilitation. However, there is currently a lack of a unified approach to the composition of therapy and the use of technology, which needs to be addressed in the future.

Keywords:

• telehealth
• telerehabilitation
• pulmonary rehabilitation
• pulmonary disease
• exercise

Acknowledgments

Supported by Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (University Hospital Brno, 65269705), No. NU21J-09-00004.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.