Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40665188›Full record

SynthesisActa neurologica Belgica2026

Effectiveness of telerehabilitation in reducing motor disability and enhancing quality of life in parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Anas Zakarya Nourelden, Mohamed Mamdouh, Ibrahim Kamal, Osama Khalid Abdelgawad Ahmed, Adel Reda Abd Elwahab, Mohammed Elkholy, Abdelrahman G Tawfik, Mohamed Hesham Gamal, Ahmed Hashem Fathallah

Abstract readSystematic ReviewMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Acta neurologica Belgica, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Telerehabilitation for Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Anas Zakarya Nourelden *Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Mohamed Mamdouh *Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
Ibrahim KamalFaculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Osama Khalid Abdelgawad AhmedFaculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Adel Reda Abd ElwahabFaculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Mohammed ElkholyDepartment of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Abdelrahman G TawfikDepartment of Pharmacotherapy Outcomes, College of Pharmacy, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Mohamed Hesham GamalFaculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
Ahmed Hashem FathallahFaculty of Medicine, Minia University, Minia, Egypt. dr.ahmedhashem12@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9639-8994

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThis review and meta-analysis explored the effectiveness of telerehabilitation in reducing motor disability and improving quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

backgroundPD is characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Motor function decline averages 3-5 points per year on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Part III (UPDRS-III). Sedentary behavior worsens symptoms, while exercise improves motor function and quality of life. Telerehabilitation has proven effective in increasing exercise adherence in PD patients.

methodsWe searched Web of Science, Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, and Embase for relevant articles till June 2024, including studies that compared telerehabilitation to no exercise, traditional face-to-face rehabilitation, or any studies with no comparator group. Data were pooled using a random effects model, and differences were presented using mean differences (MD) alongside 95% confidence intervals (CI).

resultsThis review included 44 articles with 1614 participants. In assessing the quality of studies, four cohort/cross-sectional studies were rated fair, one good; one case-control study was good. Eight single-arm and four NRCTs were good, and the others were of fair quality. All 20 RCTs had a high risk of bias; one case report was deemed to have fair quality.Double-arm studies demonstrated no significant difference between telerehabilitation and in-person programs regarding UPDRS-III scores (MD: 0.69). Pooled Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ)-39 scores exhibited the same non-significant pattern, but in longer-duration programs, telerehabilitation demonstrated a significant edge (MD:-5.45). Similarly, the difference between telerehabilitation and traditional exercise was not significant in PDQ-8 scores, nonetheless, TUG times were significantly shorter for telerehabilitation (MD: 1.17). In the single-arm analysis of telerehabilitation, UPDRS-III scores showed an improvement (MD:-2.58). Likewise, PDQ-39 scores decreased significantly (MD:-2.98). Both PDQ-8 scores (MD:-5.52) and Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) times (MD:-2.15) decreased significantly, while Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scores improved (MD: 8.65%).

conclusionTelerehabilitation decreases the progress in motor disability and improves the quality of life in PD patients, possibly due to increased exercise adherence, while costing less than in-person exercise.

Indexed as

Exercise TherapyParkinson DiseaseQuality of LifeHumansTelerehabilitationTreatment OutcomeMeta-analysisMotor activityParkinson diseaseTelerehabilitation

Identifiers

PMID40665188

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.