ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurorehabilitation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1611565
This article is part of the Research TopicNew methods in neurorehabilitationView all 5 articles
Task-Oriented Telerehabilitation for Upper Limb Functional Recovery After Stroke: A retrospective cohort study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yuebei People's Hospital, Shaoguan, China
- 2Shaoguan First People's Hospital, Shaoguan, China
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Many patients are often forced to terminate their rehabilitation training during the prime recovery phase. This makes tele-rehabilitation-based, home-based rehabilitation particularly important. Purpose: This retrospective cohort study aimed to compare the efficacy of tele-rehabilitation-based task-oriented training (TOT) versus face-to-face(FTF) task-oriented training and conventional tele-neurofacilitation techniques. Methods: Patients were assigned to either the telerehabilitation group, the FTF group, or the telecontrol group while receiving standardised rehabilitation treatment and education. Moreover, the Tele-Rehab group underwent tele-rehabilitation-based task-oriented training, the FTF group underwent face-to-face task-oriented training, and the Tele-Control Group underwent tele-rehabilitation-based conventional neurofacilitation techniques. The main evaluation indices were the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity Scale (FMA-UE), Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), and Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). Secondary outcome indicators were Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). All patients underwent 3 weeks of treatment.In total, 79 participants completed the trial: Tele-rehab group (n=23), FTF group (n=28), and Tele-Control group (n=28). Improvements in FMA-UE, WMFT, ARAT, and IADL were found in all three groups (p ＜ 0.05). The mean change in FMA-UE was 9.4 in the Tele-rehab group, 6.4 in the FTF group, and 6.7 in the Tele-control group. The mean difference between the Tele-Rehab and FTF groups was 3.0, and the mean difference between the Tele-Rehab and Tele-Control groups was 2.7, with the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval not exceeding the margin of non-inferiority. Non-inferiority was demonstrated, as the 95% CI did not cross the margin in FMA-UE difference scores before and after the intervention in the Tele-rehab group compared with the FTF group (p > 0.05), nor in the FTF group compared with the Tele-Control group before and after the intervention (p > 0.05). The 95% CI for FMA-UE improvement between Tele-rehab TOT and FTF TOT was [-0.81, 7.39], not exceeding the non-inferiority margin of 12.4. TOT and remote traditional neurofacilitation techniques for tele-rehabilitation of stroke patients can enhance upper limb motor function and improve quality of daily life with comparable efficacy to FTF TOT. Therefore, telerehabilitation is a method that is not inferior to conventional rehabilitation and deserves to be used and promoted in homebound patients.
Keywords: Stroke, telerehabilitation, Task-oriented training, clinical trials, upper limb dysfunction
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hong, Cha, Bao, Luo, Li, Cheng and Liu. 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:
Jinling Cheng, Shaoguan First People's Hospital, Shaoguan, China
Zicai Liu, Shaoguan First People's Hospital, Shaoguan, China
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