Effectiveness of Telerehabilitation in Geriatric Populations: A mini-review

Abstract

Aging in the human is an extraordinary issue that affects the subject’s quality of life. Another factor affecting the patient’s health and quality of life (QoL) is obesity, which has reached a pandemic situation. Thus, geriatric patients are liable to different cardiometabolic complications with increased rate of morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable group. Thus, rehabilitation in geriatrics is a vital issue, that could improve the patient QoL. However, and due to logistic and personal factors, the application of rehabilitation is limited. This urges researchers and physical therapists to search for out of the box methods to deliver rehabilitation. Telerehabilitation has emerged as reasonable alternative to traditional methods. Telerehabilitation in physical therapy could be comparable with in-person rehabilitation or better than no rehabilitation for conditions such as osteoarthritis, low back pain, hip and knee replacement, multiple sclerosis, and in the context of cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation. However, several researchers have raised the question of whether telerehabilitation has advantages that could be superior to in-person rehabilitation. In this context, we will briefly discuss the potential advantages of telerehabilitation over in-person rehabilitation and summarize the available literature related to the topic.

After reviewing available literature, we found progressive increase of telerehabilitation in many countries. It was associated with an outcome comparable or better than traditional – face to face – methods. Telerehabilitation interventions include different means of delivery. These include- but not limited to- chat, video conferencing, phone calls, and different healthcare applications tailored for patient’s conditions.  These represented telecommunication methods. Besides, tele- and remote-monitoring, Virtual and augmented reality, Wearable technology, and Interactive and assistive technologies are available.  Interestingly, patient compliance is increased with telerehabilitation than traditional methods. The readily available online means and programs, with progressive reduction of cost can explain the condition. Exercise programs can be employed by telerehabilitation as other interventions even for fragile patients.