Home-based tele-rehabilitation presents comparable and positive impact on self-reported functional outcomes as center-based rehabilitation: Singapore tele-technology aided rehabilitation in stroke (STARS) trial

• Published in: Annals of physical and rehabilitation medicine Vol. 61; pp. e22 - e23
• Main Authors: Asano, M., Tai, B.C., Chen, C., Yen, S.C., Tay, A., Cheong, A., Ng, Y.S., De Silva, D.A., Caves, K., Kumar, Y., Phan, S.W., Cai, V., Wong, N., Chew, E., Chen, Z., Hoenig, H., Koh, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Masson SAS 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Randomized controlled trial; Stroke; Telerehabilitation; Randomized controlled trial; Stroke; Telerehabilitation
• ISSN: 1877-0657; 1877-0665
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rehab.2018.05.048

Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Functional, financial and social barriers commonly prevent individuals with acute stroke and disabilities from receiving rehabilitation following their hospital discharge. Home-based rehabilitation is an alternative to center-based rehabilitation but it is often costlier. Tele-rehabilitation is a promising solution for optimizing rehabilitation utilization, as it can enable clinicians to supervise patients and conversely, patients to receive the recommended care remotely. Our team therefore developed a novel tele-rehabilitation, with the primary aim to estimate the extent to which the proposed tele-rehabilitation resulted in an improvement in function during the first three-months after stroke in comparison to usual rehabilitation. This was a randomized controlled trial. We used the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument (FDI) to assess our primary outcome (with adjustment made for baseline covariate). We recruited 124 participants and randomized them to receive either 12-week home-based tele-rehabilitation or usual rehabilitation. Over the 12-week rehabilitation period, the intervention group spent 2246-minutes on their rehabilitation whereas the control group spent 2565-minutes. The median difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.649). The mean FDI frequency score post-rehabilitation for the intervention and control groups were 39.7 (SD 11.7) and 43.0 (SD 10.6) respectively. The mean FDI limitation score post-rehabilitation for the intervention group was 78.5 (SD 20.6) and that for the control group was 85.4 (SD 19.6). The unadjusted and adjusted differences in both FDI scores between the two groups were not statistically significant (Models 1 and 2). Both groups reported comparable amount of time spent on rehabilitation and similarly positive impact on the primary outcome. Home-based tele-rehabilitation can be an effective strategy for minimizing or eliminating rehabilitation utilization barriers while achieving the same functional outcome as center-based rehabilitation.