Effect of home exercise on post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction during the long-term COVID-19 epidemic lockdown: a retrospective single-center cohort study

Abstract Background:During the unpredictable and long-term COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (Shanghai, April 2022 to May 2022), a large number of patients with post-stroke dysfunction exercised at home, without going to specialized rehabilitation institutions for systematic rehabilitation treatment. To date, there are few relevant studies on the effect of home exercise in patients with post-stroke dysfunction in the case of long-term COVID-19 epidemic lockdown. Methods: First, we collected the factors that might affect the post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction during the long-term lockdown. The evaluation indicators of post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction before and after the long-term lockdown were recorded. Second, we analyzed the recovery effect of sensorimotor dysfunction in post-stroke patients who can only rely on home exercise during the long-term lockdown. Third, we sequentially performed univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses to see which factors might influence post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction during the long-term lockdown. Results: We report the results of a retrospective single-center cohort study of 104 post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction patients. For post-stroke sensory dysfunction, patients with shorter disease courses or personalized home exercise programs recovered better. For post-stroke motor dysfunction, patients with younger age, shorter disease courses, or personalized home exercise programs recovered better. For post-stroke balance dysfunction and ADL dysfunction, patients with shorter disease courses recovered better. Conclusion:During the unpredictable and long-term COVID-19 epidemic lockdown, patients with post-stroke sensorimotor dysfunction who had personalized home exercise programs had better recovery of sensorimotor dysfunction than those who did not have personalized home exercise programs. Trial registration: This trial was prospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ChiCTR2200063781; 16 September, 2022).