EXERCISE APPROACHES IN POST-COVID 19 SYNDROME: A SYSTEMATIC REVİEW

Abstract

 Covid 19 is a disease that entered our lives in 2019 and became a global epidemic and massively affects large communities. Although the increase in vaccination studies and the acquisition of herd immunity enable to control the disease, the effects of the disease may continue to manifest itself with a syndrome called post-covid syndrome in people who have had the disease or who have already had the disease and survived its effects mildly. Patients with acute Covid-19 experiencing symptoms such as chronic fatigue, weakness, dyspnea, headache, cognitive dysfunction, stress, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, orthostatic intolerance after recovery, and this situation lasts longer than 12 weeks defined as the  Post-Covid 19 or Prolonged Covid 19 syndrome. The aim of this study is to provide a perspective in order to help people in the presence of prolonged covid 19 syndrome by using physiotherapy-focused exercise approaches. In this direction, the data obtained by scanning randomized controlled studies published between 2020-2022 in electronic databases were compiled. The data obtained show that; It is seen that exercise programs have a positive effect on increasing aerobic capacity and quality of life in individuals with Post or Prolonged Covid-19 symptoms in the short and medium term. Its effects on pulmonary functions seem to need further investigation. Individual planning of exercise programs and their application for existing symptoms may also affect the results of these studies. There is a need for exercise programs to be performed in the longer term and on larger populations