Telerehabilitation for individuals with spinal cord injury in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review of the literature

Study design

Systematic review.

Objective

To systematically review the evidence for the effectiveness of telerehabilitation as an intervention for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Setting

Not applicable.

Methods

MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Pubmed and Global Health databases were used to identify studies published between 1946–2020 meeting the following criteria: (1) patients with SCI diagnosis; (2) in LMIC; (3) an outcome measuring clinical functional ability, quality of life or all-cause mortality reduction. The risk of bias in studies was graded using revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool in randomised trials (RoB 2) and risk-of-bias tool in non-randomised trials (ROBINS-I). Evidence levels were graded with Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE).

Results

In total, 107 articles were identified from the initial search. After screening, five studies were included. Some significant improvements to quality of life and pressure ulcer management were observed, alongside some improvement in functional ability with suggested improvement to depression scores. Telerehabilitation alleviated participants’ sense of social isolation, improved satisfaction scores and assisted them to remember techniques for SCI management. Telerehabilitation was valued by health professionals. There was no reduction in all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

There is insufficient evidence to recommend telerehabilitation as an intervention to treat and manage SCI in LMICs, although there is an indication of potential patient benefit. Further research is required to better understand the causal mechanisms underpinning the use of telerehabilitation and establish its efficacy, in the context of resource-limited settings.