SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1565118
Effects of high-intensity exercise on rehabilitation of patients after stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials with high quality
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Neurology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130033, China, Changchun, China
- 2Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130033, China, Changchun, China
- 3Department of Nursing, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130033, China, Changchun, China
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Objectives: To present the latest systematic review and meta-analysis of high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing high-intensity exercise with routine rehabilitation in stroke patients.: PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane were used to searching literature up to October 2024. RCTs with sample size of ≥50 individuals were included. Primary outcomes assessed were the Six-Minute Walking Test (6MWT), Ten-Meter Walk Test (10MWT), VO2peak, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used for pooling data. Stability was evaluated by sensitivity analysis.Results: Seven RCTs with 724 participants were included. Meta-analysis revealed significant improvements in the 6MWT (SMD: 0.28; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.45) and BBS (SMD: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.67) in the high-intensity exercise group. However, highintensity exercise had no significant effect on VO2peak, TUG, or 10MWT. Sensitivity analysis showed that all outcomes were stable except for the 10MWT. No significant publication bias was detected for any indicator.Conclusions: High-intensity exercise significantly improves 6MWT and BBS in stroke patients, but does not significantly affect TUG, VO2peak, 10MWT, or MoCA.Clinicians should encourage stroke patients with walking function to engage in structured high-intensity exercise to improve cardiopulmonary function.
Keywords: high-intensity, Exercise, Stroke, randomized controlled trials, meta-
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Dou and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hong Li, Department of Nursing, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130033, China, Changchun, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.