The effect of exercise and education combination via telerehabilitation in patients with chronic neck pain: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: A limited number of studies have investigated the effect of telerehabilitation in individuals with chronic neck pain (CNP). OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of holistic exercise and education combination via telerehabilitation on pain, disability, kinesiophobia, exercise adherence, quality of life and patient satisfaction in individuals with CNP. METHODS: A two-armed, randomized controlled study was conducted with 40 participants with CNP. Patients were randomized into two groups: Telerehabilitation (TR) (n = 20) and Standard Rehabilitation (SR) (n = 20). The TR group was provided with exercise and education videos online. The same protocol was given to the SR group in the clinical setting. Patients were evaluated at baseline and after eight weeks of intervention. Satisfaction and usability levels of the TR group were assessed at week 8. RESULTS: TR group demonstrated better improvement in function, quality of life (including bodily pain, general health, social function), kinesiophobia and exercise adherence. The TR group was not superior to the SR group in pain and other quality-of-life subscores. A vast majority of the TR group had high satisfaction and usability. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive rehabilitation via TR increases satisfaction and participation in patients with CNP. Besides, TR provides more positive effects on function and kinesiophobia. Further studies should focus on the impact of telerehabilitation on pain and quality of life in CNP with a long-term follow-up.

The effect of pelvic floor muscle training on urinary incontinence in patients with stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: No other systematic review presented the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in individual with stroke. AIMS: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to demonstrate the effectiveness of PFMT for urinary incontinence in patients with stroke. METHODS: "Web of Science (WoS), Cochrane Library, PubMed and Scopus" databases were searched. "Revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool randomized trials (RoB 2)" and "PEDro" were used to assess the risk of bias and methodological quality of the studies. Narrative synthesis and meta-analysis were conducted to present the results. RESULTS: A total of 8 articles were included in the review. Seven articles were classified as "good" level evidence. Four articles were considered to have "high risk" of bias for the overall score. Regarding two homogenous studies, PFMT-based rehabilitation was not superior standard urinary incontinence therapy on SF-36-Social Function score at 12-week follow-up (ES 0.47, 95% CI - 0.16-0.96). Data pooling of two studies did not provide an additional advantage of pelvic muscle training on 3 days voiding diary (night, total day) score at 12-week follow-up (ES 28, 95% CI - 0.61-0.48; ES 0.30, 95% CI - 0.23-0.95). On the other hand, low-quality evidence demonstrated that pelvic muscle training yielded better results on daytime voiding (ES 0.28, 95% CI 0.04-1.16). CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that PFMT had positive effects in terms of daytime urination frequency and incontinence. Although some studies have reported positive effects on symptoms, function, strength, and endurance, the generalizability of these results is controversial. Further studies should assess the quality-of-life and function with urinary incontinence and stroke-specific tools.