Telerehabilitation in People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Introduction: A new coronavirus, called COVID-19, was discovered in Hubei, China in December 2019. In just one year,  COVID-19 has infected more than 81 million people (as  of December 29, 2020) worldwide. People with multiple sclerosis (MS) are a particularly vulnerable group during the disease. In such a situation, telerehabilitation approaches provide the main solutions to improve the disorders caused by inactivity in people with MS. This study was conducted to review the studies performed in the field of telerehabilitation in people with MS and to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of using this method in the face of the prevalence of COVID-19 for people with MS. Materials and Methods: Research studies were searched and reviewed in 4 databases, including PubMed, Science-direct, Scopus, and Web of Science in the period 1995-2020. The inclusion criteria included articles using telerehabilitation interventions in people with MS and telehealth interventions in people with MS published between 1995 and 2020. These articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Group or single-case intervention research has been used. Results: A total of 261 articles were found in the initial search  based  on keywords.  In  these articles, descriptions of telerehabilitation and telehealth were presented. Initially, after reviewing the searched articles, 223 articles were removed from the study process due to a lack of inclusion criteria. After that, the full texts of the remaining 38 articles were selected, at the end, 16 articles had the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. Conclusion: Based on our findings on the benefits of using telerehabilitation to improve the cognitive, physical, and quality of life of people with MS, as well as its cost-effectiveness, it is recommended that people with MS under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic stay in quarantine. It is a good way to rehabilitate these people to prevent the further progression of the disease and maintain their quality of life. Of course, this approach is growing and due to the low quality of current studies, more research is needed.