DYSPNEA: A MAP OF COCHRANE EVIDENCE RELEVANT TO REHABILITATION FOR PEOPLE WITH POST COVID-19 CONDITION

C. Cordani^1,2, S.G. Lazzarini³, E. Zampogna⁴, M.J. Del Furia², C. Arienti³, S. Negrini^1,2, C. Kiekens⁵

¹University "La Statale", Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, Milan, Italy, ²IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy, ³IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Milan, Italy, ⁴IRCCS Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri, Division of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Tradate (VA), Italy, ⁵IRCCS MultiMedica, Milan, Italy

Background: Rehabilitation focuses on impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions being informed by the underlying health condition. In the current absence of direct “evidence on” rehabilitation interventions for people with post COVID-19 condition (PCC), we can search and synthesize the indirect “evidence relevant to” coming from interventions effective on the symptoms of PCC in other health conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) required this information to inform expert teams and provide specific recommendations in their Guidelines.

Purpose: With this overview of reviews with mapping we aimed to synthesize in a map the Cochrane evidence relevant to rehabilitation for dyspnea due to PCC.

Methods: We searched the last five years’ Cochrane Systematic Review (CSRs) using the terms “dyspnea” and its synonyms in the Cochrane Library. We extracted and summarized all the available evidence using a map. We grouped the included CSRs for health conditions and interventions, indicating the effect and the quality of evidence.

Results: We found 371 CSRs published between 2016 and 2021 and included 15 in this overview. We found eight studies on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, two on cancer, and one for bronchiectasis, chronic respiratory disease, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease. Effective interventions included pulmonary rehabilitation, also in combination with exercise training, non-invasive ventilation, upper limb training and multicomponent integrated interventions, with very low- to moderate-quality evidence.

Conclusions: The current findings served as the basis for the three recommendations on treatments for dyspnea published in the current WHO Guidelines for clinical practice.

Implications: These results are the first step of indirect evidence to generate helpful hypotheses for clinical practice and future research on dyspnea in adults with PCC.

Funding acknowledgements: This study was supported and funded by the Italian Ministry of Health - Ricerca Corrente 2022

Keywords:
Post COVID condition
Dyspnea
Respiratory signs and symptoms

Topics:
COVID-19
Cardiorespiratory
Disability & rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: Systematic review