Correlations between Disease Severity and Rehabilitation Outcomes in Patients Recovering from Covid-19 Infection.
Sheer Shabat, Anat Marmor, Shimon Shiri and 3 others
PMID 36254798WHAT IT FOUND
Post-acute COVID-19 patients with severe disease started rehabilitation with lower function but reached similar independence to milder cases at discharge.
They needed longer hospital stays and more rehabilitation time to catch up, suggesting early referral is critical for those with prolonged acute illness.
Key findings
01Patients with higher acute disease severity and longer hospital stays had lower functional independence at admission to rehabilitation.
02Severity of acute illness did not predict functional level at discharge; patients with severe disease reached similar independence as those with milder disease.
03Longer duration of acute hospitalization was associated with greater functional improvement during rehabilitation, indicating those with severe disease required more time to recover function.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study had no control group of patients who received no rehabilitation, so it is impossible to determine how much of the improvement was due to the therapy versus natural recovery. The sample size was relatively small (61 patients) and drawn from a single centre, limiting generalizability. Pain, fatigue, and cognitive status (MoCA) were measured only at admission and not at discharge, so changes in these symptoms during rehabilitation are unknown. The study used MCID values derived from stroke or geriatric populations because no COVID-19-specific MCID data existed, which may not accurately reflect clinical significance in this group.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that severity of acute illness predicts poor functional outcomes at discharge. The study found that while sicker patients started with lower function, they reached similar independence levels to milder cases, provided they underwent sufficient rehabilitation. The key takeaway is the need for longer rehabilitation duration, not a ceiling on recovery.