Effectiveness of Structured Exercise Protocol on Functional Performance in Subjects with Covid-19

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that patients of Covid 19 have musculoskeletal dysfunctions in addition to cardiorespiratory and psychosocial problems. Musculoskeletal system is amongst the most common systems found to be affected in patients admitted in ICU for prolonged periods and some patients of Covid 19 do have to spend a reasonably long period in ICU’s. Prolonged hospital stay may be needed in Covid 19 patients having ARDS or pneumonia and symptoms of fever, cold and cough to monitor their recovery. This may result in musculoskeletal dysfunctions as demonstrated in some studies. Thus, treating the musculoskeletal system becomes a vital part of the regimen to be followed during the patients stay in the ICU which needs to be followed up even after the patient is shifted from the ICU by keeping a track of Physical Functional performance of the subjects after discharge. This experimental study was done on 150 Covid-19 positive subjects to see the long term effectiveness of a structured exercise protocol on the Physical Functional performance of Covid 19 patients. The results of the study were analysed statistically and both the outcome measures FIMS and POMA showed significant changes with p value <0.05 and <0.05 respectively. The study thus shows that the structured exercise protocol helped in maintaining the Physical Functional performance of the subjects through-out the hospital stay and also after discharge during follow up.