Community-Based Rehabilitation and Patient-Centered Outcomes in Survivors of Critical COVID-19 Attending an Intensive Care Recovery Clinic.
Felipe González-Seguel, Evan Haezebrouck, Lindsey E Fresenko and 11 others
PMID 40980512WHAT IT FOUND
Survivors of critical COVID had poor walking endurance, frailty, and cognitive impairment, while many did not receive community rehabilitation.
Those who did receive rehabilitation were worse at follow-up, so this cannot show benefit.
Key findings
01At short-term follow-up, 133 of 163 patients completed the 6-minute walk test and achieved a median 44% of the predicted distance.
02Of 163 patients, 94 participated in at least one community-based rehabilitation session, while 52 reported none.
03Patients who participated in at least one community-based rehabilitation session had worse performance on the 6-minute walk test and Short Physical Performance Battery than patients who did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was retrospective and used a convenience sample, so it cannot show that rehabilitation caused better or worse outcomes. Patients who attended the ICU recovery clinic may have differed from those who did not, including in insurance, resources, or willingness to attend. The authors could not measure how often or how long community-based rehabilitation was delivered, so a single session and repeated sessions were treated similarly. Rehabilitation participation was partly based on patient recall and could be incomplete. Some outcome and rehabilitation data were missing. The analysis adjusted for several factors, but residual confounding may remain.
Declared interests
The authors report nothing to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that community-based rehabilitation worsened recovery. The study was observational, and patients who received rehabilitation were worse at hospital discharge and had longer ICU stays, so the association may reflect referral of sicker patients rather than harm.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →