Systematic rapid "living" review on rehabilitation needs due to COVID-19: update to March 31st, 2020

Abstract

Background and aim:The reporting of clinical studies in rehabilitation has been criticized in several aspects, including the reporting of patient characteristics. This paper aims to contribute to the improvement of the reporting of patient characteristics in rehabilitation trials. Specifically, we want to determine the type of information that should be reported in rehabilitation trials that is specific to rehabilitation patients, and how this information is captured by current reporting standards.Methods: In the first step, we made a conceptual analysis of characteristics of rehabilitation patients by addressing the specifics of the field of medical rehabilitation, including the definition of rehabilitation and a description of its beneficiaries. In the second step we compared this reference framework to the current reporting standards, especially the CONSORT statement and its extensions, as well as standards for the reporting of clinical guidelines (AGREE, RIGHT). Results: Patients included in rehabilitation interventions should be distinguished by specific information. From a clinical perspective, patients dealt with in rehabilitation comprise broader diagnostic groups compared to other clinical settings. Information on comorbidities should be added in the description of the patients. Also, a description of baseline characteristics of patients should always include functioning characteristics of the patients, including information on relevant context factors, i.e. environmental and personal factors. The CONSORT statement aims to provide patient characteristic to enable transferability of results to users. It is represented in terms of selection (inclusion/exclusion) criteria and the description of the resulting samples.Extensions of the CONSORT statement specified that information on socioeconomic variables should be added, and the selection of patient characteristics to be reported at baseline should be based on the selection of outcome variables. Also, all relevant prognostic variables should be

Frailty and COVID-19: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic increased both the pressure from acute care wards to transfer patients to rehabilitation services and the difficulty in providing outpatient and home-based rehabilitation, which requires a rapid re-shaping of the organization of rehabilitation services. A recent review pointed out that an early rehabilitation should be granted to inpatients with COVID-19; exercise programs should be provided to older people during social isolation to reduce the risk of frailty, sarcopenia, cognitive decline, and depression; and telerehabilitation may represent the first rehabilitation option for people at home [31].…”

“…Clarfield et al emphasized the role of active palliative care at the end of life during COVID-19 and recommended that very frail older people with severe dementia should be actively protected from ventilator-associated complications and subsequent risk of undignified death [28]. Three recommendations, specifically developed for people shielding at home, highlighted the importance of physical exercise in preventing loss of muscle strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity [30][31][32]. Four guidelines were focused on the management of patients with specific diseases, including diabetes, hemophilia, and cancer [33][34][35][36], and one focused on palliative care for older frail patients [37].…”

“…Four guidelines were focused on the management of patients with specific diseases, including diabetes, hemophilia, and cancer [33][34][35][36], and one focused on palliative care for older frail patients [37]. In terms of the setting, eight guidelines were specific for hospitals or nursing homes [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]34] and six for home care [30][31][32][33]35,36], while one recommendation was made for both settings [37]. With regards to the frailty index, four guidelines suggested to screen patients with the Clinical Frailty Scale [23,27,29,34], and one suggested the French Clinical Frailty Isolation was another important issue raised by a few editorials: two editorials warned about the negative outcomes of social isolation for older frail people [14,22], two stressed the need of remote monitoring systems specifically devoted to isolated patients [10,16], and three highlighted the negative effects of isolation in nursing homes [10,20,22].…”

Geriatric rehabilitation and Covid-19 : a Case Report

“…Aged adults who survive the COVID-19 could present several frailty criteria after the respiratory distress and sometimes several days in an intensive care unit. Clinical pictures are multiples, associating respiratory and vascular consequences, bed rest effects, medication effects, in a psychological context of anxiety [3][4].…”

Geriatric Rehabilitation and COVID-19: a Case Report

“…Aged adults who survive COVID-19 could present several frailty criteria following respiratory distress and may sometimes need to spend several days in an intensive care unit. There are multiple clinical pictures associating respiratory and vascular consequences, bed rest effects, and medication effects in a psychological context of anxiety [3,4].…”