Post-COVID-19 Stroke Rehabilitation in Qatar: A Retrospective, Observational Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND AND
PURPOSE: A growing field of interest is exploration of the functional outcomes of post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with stroke after rehabilitation. The association between stroke and COVID-19 infection is still being studied. We had explored the functional gain in post-COVID-19 patients with stroke following active rehabilitation services in Qatar to understand the possible predictors of functional gain.
METHODS: We had included twenty patients diagnosed with post-COVID-19 with stroke in this retrospective pilot study conducted at a Qatar rehabilitation setting. We had used preexisting data from electronic medical records. We had included the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), post-COVID-19 functional status (PCFS), Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), Functional Ambulation Category (FAC), and Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) as outcome measures. We had used descriptive statistics to summarize the baseline characteristics. A paired t-test had been used to compare the pre and posttests of the study group at admission and discharge. Multiple regression analyses had been performed to assess the predictors of functional gain, including age, employment status, impaired side, family history, and length of stay (LOS). All the results had been presented with associated 95% confidence intervals.
RESULTS: This study had revealed an increase in functional gain (mean FIM gain, 32.9 ± 8.9) and improvements in functional performance throughout active rehabilitation (LOS, 62.45 ± 37.61). Significant differences had been noted in all outcome measures from admission until discharge (p < 0.05). Age (β = - 0.769, p = 0.022) and impaired side (β = 0.573, p = 0.007) had significantly predicted National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores. Age (β = - 0.764, p = 0.047) had been a major factor that significantly predicted FIM gain. LOS (β = - 0.990, p = 0.002) had predicted FAC. The mean age was 56 ± 8 years.
CONCLUSION: Various factors are independently associated with functional gain after rehabilitation. Our findings suggest that active rehabilitation services and immediate intervention will be required to rehabilitate post-COVID-19 patients with stroke, a vulnerable population, to achieve adequate functional improvement. © 2022 Asirvatham, Abubacker, Chandran, Boppana, Al Abdulla, Saad, licensee HBKU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.