Evidence mapPaperPMID 41775918Full record

ArticleCommunications medicine2026

Increased physical performance after personalised physiotherapy and nutritional counselling in adults with post-COVID-19 condition: a feasibility randomised trial.

Berenice G Jimenez Garcia, Stijn Roggeman, Lynn Leemans, Wilfried Cools, David Beckwée, Elisabeth De Waele

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Communications medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05254301 (Faster Functional Performance Recovery After Individualized Nutrition Therapy Combined With a Patient-tailored Physical Rehabilitation Program Versus Standard Physiotherapy in Patients With Long COVID), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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.

NCT05254301 nacompletednot on this map

Faster Functional Performance Recovery After Individualized Nutrition Therapy Combined With a Patient-tailored Physical Rehabilitation Program Versus Standard Physiotherapy in Patients With Long COVID: a Pilot Study.

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversitair Ziekenhuis BrusselRan2022 to 2024Enrolled65ConditionsCOVID-19ArmsIntervention group
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

6 authors.

Berenice G Jimenez GarciaMetabolism and Nutrition (MeNu) Research Unit, Vitality Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Brussels, Belgium. berenice.gabriela.jimenez.garcia@vub.be.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3277-5682
Stijn RoggemanPhysical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel), Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090, Brussels, Belgium.
Lynn LeemansMetabolism and Nutrition (MeNu) Research Unit, Vitality Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Brussels, Belgium.
Wilfried CoolsCore facility - Support for Quantitative and Qualitative Research (SQUARE), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Brussels, Belgium.
David BeckwéeRehabilitation Research (RERE), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 121, 1090, Brussels, Belgium.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9951-9993
Elisabeth De WaeleMetabolism and Nutrition (MeNu) Research Unit, Vitality Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Brussels, Belgium.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundNutritional counselling and physiotherapy could provide synergistic effects in alleviating Post-COVID-19 Condition (PCC) symptoms. However, the feasibility of such personalised multimodal therapy (PMT) remains unclear. The aim was to examine feasibility and inform a future randomised controlled trial (RCT) by exploring preliminary clinical outcomes.

methodsThis pilot and feasibility parallel-group RCT was conducted at a tertiary hospital (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05254301, KCE-trials funding: LCOV-211306). Adult participants with PCC according to the WHO criteria were block-randomised into either physiotherapy (n = 33) or PMT (n = 32) for 12 weeks with 6-week follow-up. The PMT included online nutritional counselling and pacing-based physiotherapy. Outcome assessment was assessor-blinded. Feasibility outcomes included study burden, recruitment, and attrition. The 1-min sit-to-stand test (1-MSTS) was assessed as an exploratory clinical outcome. Descriptive statistics and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used to estimate between-group differences. Analyses used all available data, with varying sample sizes.

resultsHere we show that study burden was higher than expected, affecting both recruitment and attrition. The PMT group attended 10 ± 4 dietitian teleconsultations and 14 ± 4 supervised physiotherapy sessions. Between-group mean differences in 1-MSTS repetitions from baseline were 0.97 [95% CI: -1.75, 3.70] at 12 weeks and 2.14 [95% CI: -1.26, 5.54] at follow-up. A definitive RCT would require 41 participants.

conclusionsThe study demonstrated overall safety and feasibility despite a high study burden. Exploratory clinical outcomes showed potential improvement in both groups, with growing estimated differences between groups over time, suggesting a longer follow-up for a definitive RCT.

Identifiers

PMID41775918
PMCPMC13076858

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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.