Comparison of Telerehabilitation and Video Basics and Exercise in Older Adult Individuals

Telerehabilitation is defined as the use of information and telecommunication technologies to provide healthcare services over a long distance between a patient and a healthcare professional. It involves a multi-component approach such as remote monitoring, e-learning and tele-coaching. The American Telemedicine Association defines telerehabilitation as "the delivery of rehabilitation services through information and communication technologies." It also states that telerehabilitation encompasses a range of rehabilitation and habilitation services, including assessment, monitoring, prevention, intervention, supervision, education, counseling and counseling.

In cases where access to healthcare services is limited, it is recommended to use telerehabilitation to provide effective rehabilitation services to patients. Telerehabilitation is an emerging field that is growing rapidly and becoming an important part of telemedicine and e-health. It is hypothesized that it may offer new possibilities to deliver intervention strategies across the continuum of rehabilitation and that the distance barrier can be minimized to increase access. Minimizing the distance barrier can be achieved through various modes of telecommunications, including voice, video and virtual reality.

Telerehabilitation refers to services provided by occupational therapists, speech therapists, and physical therapists. It provides continuity of service throughout the entire rehabilitation cycle, including assessment, intervention, consultation and education, and has emerged as an effective support for providing home rehabilitation care to recently discharged patients. In the practice of telerehabilitation, it is assumed that patients have various advantages in many respects, as they have the opportunity to perform rehabilitation in their own social environment, can avoid transportation problems, can personally arrange their exercise hours, and are encouraged to self-manage their disease.

The use of telerehabilitation can promote standardization, improve patient compliance with exercise programs, and reduce costs. Additionally, this type of technology can also facilitate participation in rehabilitation when patients cannot access traditional physical therapy services due to geographic challenges or inability to travel.

A Cochrane review found that the technologies used in telerehabilitation interventions were well accepted by patients, but further studies were needed to increase the evidence base for clinical benefits.

Participation in exercise is low in elderly individuals, and the Covid 19 pandemic has further reduced the low participation of the elderly in exercise. For this reason, telerehabilitation for the elderly is becoming more and more important day by day.

Researchers could not find a study in the literature examining the effectiveness of different technological methods in exercise practices in older adults. Based on this, the aim of this study is to compare the effect of exercise intervention using telerehabilitation and video-based rehabilitation method on physical performance, muscle mass, fat percentage and body mass index.

Location of the research: Hacettepe University Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Geriatric Rehabilitation Unit and Lokman Hekim University

Population of the study, sample, research group: The minimum number of participates required to be included in the study was determined by power analysis. It is planned to include individuals applying to Hacettepe University Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Geriatric Rehabilitation Unit and Lokman Hekim University to participate in the research. Individuals who give their written consent and meet the inclusion criteria will be included in the study.

Study design:

Signed consent was obtained from the participants who agreed to participate in the research, and the research was conducted by the researchers within the framework of the ethical rules determined according to the Declaration of Helsinki.

The researchers followed the instructions in the CONSORT checklist used in randomized controlled trials while writing the article.

Individuals over 65 years old who participated in the study were divided into 2 groups (TR and VTR) by computer-generated randomization (allocation ratio of 1:1). The researchers sent only videotaped exercises to the VTR group and were asked to follow the exercises in the videos.

In order to better understand the exercises, the researchers sent these recorded videos to the TR group, and the researchers also had the participants do the exercises online with the help of TR using the WhatsApp program. Before and after the intervention, the participants were evaluated by the researchers in terms of physical performance, muscle mass, fat ratio and BMI. These evaluation results were compared within and between groups. The exercises performed by both participant groups were performed for 25-45 minutes, 3 days a week for 6 weeks.

Both participates groups were given the same exercises.