ABSTRACT

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of remote rehabilitation on activities of daily living and quality of life in stroke patients. Methods: This study analyzed articles published between January 2000 and January 2022 among randomized controlled trials that verified the effectiveness of using tele-rehabilitation in stroke patients. Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, and RISS were used as the databases. The quality of the study was evaluated based on the PEDro scale. A meta-analysis was conducted using statistics such as the number of samples, averages, and standard deviations. Results: The final 10 randomized controlled trials were selected, and the total number of participants was 343 in the experimental group and 332 in the control group. The effect size was calculated based on Cohen’s d-value and a random effect model. An analysis showed no significant difference at 0.22 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: -0.02 – 0.46; p = 0.07) in improving daily life activities in stroke patients, whereas interventions involving activities of daily living training in tele-rehabilitation programs showed a moderate effect size of 0.48 (95% CI: 0.15 – 0.81; p = 0.004). In addition, there was no significant change in the quality of life improvement of stroke patients at 0.68 (95% CI: -1.24 – 2.59; p = 0.49). Conclusion: Through this study, it was found that the inclusion of activities of daily living (ADL) training in a tele-rehabilitation program was effective for stroke patients. In addition, although tele-rehabilitation showed no significant difference in improving the quality of life of stroke patients, it is meaningful that this study comprehensively analyzed the literature on the ADL and quality of life provided to such patients.