Influence of physical therapy in functional recovery in older people after Covid-19 infection

• Grant number: 22/07649-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date until: December 01, 2022
• End date until: November 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: José Eduardo Pompeu
• Grantee: Gabriela Sayuri Ochiai
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Background: Covid-19 is known to cause functional impact in people after infection recovery and physical therapy is indicated during hospitalization. However, the influence of rehabilitation post-infection still needs to be assessed, especially in older people and those who were already more impaired before Covid-19. Aims: To compare functional recovery of older people who did or did not receive physical therapy treatment after infection by Covid-19; and to assess the influence of the rehabilitation characteristics in their functional recovery, severity of frailty and risk for sarcopenia 12 months post-Covid-19. Methods: Retrospective cohort of older people (e60 years-old) who were infected by Covid-19 and are registered in a list of the Secretaria Municipal de Saúde of the city of São Paulo. Multiple inflections, cognitive limitations and those who did not want to participate will be excluded. Functionality will be assessed by Katz and Lawton Indexes regarding before Covid, just after infection recovery and present moment periods. The participants will be classified according to their final scores. We will also collect information regarding physical therapy rehabilitation and its characteristics. The comparison between the physiotherapy and non-physiotherapy groups will be analyzed by a generalized linear model with Poisson's distribution and logarithmic link function. We will adopt alpha=0.005 and the analysis will be conducted in the SAS 9.4 software.