Health care for patients with long COVID: a scoping review.
Rafaela Deharo Curvelo, Ana Cristina Ribeiro, Sílvia Carla da Silva André Uehara
PMID 39475394WHAT IT FOUND
Long COVID care was described as one-off and symptom-focused.
Included telerehabilitation and physical rehabilitation studies reported improvements in dyspnea, fatigue, exercise capacity and quality of life, but no specific guidelines were provided.
Key findings
01The included studies described long COVID care as one-off, symptom-focused and lacking specific management guidelines.
02One telerehabilitation study with professional-supervised physical exercise reported improved physical capacity in most patients and significant recovery in fatigue and dyspnea.
03One randomized trial found physical training rehabilitation produced an average Multidimensional Dyspnea Profile score 42% lower than standard physical therapy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, so it maps care rather than testing whether treatments work. Only 13 studies were included, and they came from different countries and designs, including descriptive studies, cohort studies, randomized trials and qualitative studies. The search was limited to studies published from December 2019 to June 2023 and to Portuguese, English and Spanish. The review began with nursing care in primary health care but expanded to general care and health services because few studies were found, so it is not specific to nursing care. Some included studies reported improvements without a control group, and one randomized trial found some fatigue and quality-of-life results did not show significant improvement compared with control. The included studies did not provide specific guidelines for managing long COVID.
Declared interests
Financial support was provided by FAPESP and CAPES. No other conflict of interest declaration is given.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this review as proof that telerehabilitation or physical training treats long COVID. It maps care, and the included studies varied in design; some improvements were not significant compared with control, and no specific guidelines were provided.