TELEREHABILITATION: OPTIMIZING PATIENT OUTCOMES AND ACCESSIBILITY IN POST-STROKE RECOVERY

Abstract

Background: Stroke remains a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide, necessitating intensive and prolonged rehabilitation interventions.

Aim: Telerehabilitation has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional in-person therapy, offering potential solutions to barriers in accessibility, cost, and continuity of care.

Methods: to examine the effectiveness, accessibility, implementation challenges, and patient outcomes associated with telerehabilitation for post-stroke recovery, reveals that telerehabilitation demonstrates comparable or superior outcomes to conventional therapy across multiple domains including motor function, activities of daily living, quality of life, and patient satisfaction. Evidence indicates that synchronous video-based interventions, combined with asynchronous monitoring and virtual reality applications, yield significant improvements in functional recovery.

Results: shows standardized mean differences ranging from 0.42-0.68 for upper extremity function, no significant difference in ADL outcomes (SMD -0.00, 95% CI -0.15 to 0.15), and improvements in balance outcomes. Cost analyses demonstrate savings of $654-$867 per participant compared to conventional care. Accessibility benefits include 78% reduction in travel burden and enhanced service delivery to rural populations where rehabilitation access is 45% lower than urban areas. However, implementation challenges persist, including technology barriers affecting 23-35% of older adults, digital literacy gaps, and regulatory uncertainties.

Conclusion: This review synthesizes current evidence with detailed results tables, identifies best practices for telerehabilitation delivery, and proposes frameworks for optimizing patient outcomes while addressing existing barriers to widespread adoption.