SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Rehabil. Sci.
Sec. Rehabilitation in Neurological Conditions
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fresc.2025.1448174
This article is part of the Research TopicExercise Interventions: Empowering Individuals with Neurological ConditionsView all 4 articles
Upper Limb Motor Recovery in Chronic Stroke -Longitudinal Aggregate Analysis from Control Group Outcomes
Provisionally accepted
Fabien Scalzo1*
Rob Coker2
Lauren Souders2Leo Petrossian2
Kern Bhugra2
Lauren Sheehan2Eric Leuthardt2
Alex R Carter3- 1University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
- 2Neurolutions Inc., Santa Cruz, California, United States
- 3School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
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This study examines the effects of regular physical activity on upper extremity motor recovery during the late subacute and chronic phases of stroke. Data were aggregated from 20 studies comprising 368 participants in control groups receiving usual care or general rehabilitation without specialized interventions. To isolate the impact of non-specific physical activity, studies involving robotics or task-specific therapies were excluded. The primary outcome was the change in Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) motor scale. The pooled effect size for FMA-UE change was small and non-significant (Cohen’s d = 0.11, 95% CI: –0.05 to 0.26, p > 0.05), indicating that general physical activity alone may result in limited improvements in upper extremity function in chronic stroke. Heterogeneity across studies was low, and no evidence of publication bias was found. These findings provide a quantitative benchmark for expected gains from general activity and offer a reference for interpreting outcomes in future stroke rehabilitation trials lacking control groups.
Keywords: Stroke, Rehabilitation, Fugl Meyer assessment, motor recovery, Upper extemity
Received: 12 Jun 2024; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Scalzo, Coker, Souders, Petrossian, Bhugra, Sheehan, Leuthardt and Carter. 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: Fabien Scalzo, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
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