This systematic review summarizes outcome measurement tools used in studies on outpatient and home-based rehabilitation for COVID-19. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PEDro were searched up to November 2025, to identify comparative studies evaluating exercise training programs in COVID-19 patients. Respiratory function measures were the primary outcomes, physical and cognitive/psychosocial outcomes being secondary endpoints. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental and observational studies in adults with COVID-19, both non-hospitalized and those after discharge, were included. Seventy-two studies were included: forty-six RCTs (63.9%), twenty-two before-after studies (30.6%), and other designs (5.6%, n = 4). Forty studies assessed home-based telerehabilitation via apps or online platforms (55.6%), eleven evaluated unsupervised home-based exercise (15.3%), twenty focused on outpatient rehabilitation centers (27.8%) and one (1.4%) evaluated a hybrid program. Most studies (69.4%) reported short-term interventions (≤ 2 months). Proportion of respiratory outcomes measures showing improvements post-intervention ranged from 0 to 100% (mean ± SD: 54.8 ± 39.6%), and physical outcome measures, from 0 to 100% (mean ± SD: 67.1 ± 39.9%). However, 65.3% of studies had a high risk of bias. The most reported outcome measures were the mMRC and spirometric parameters (respiratory function), the 6-MWD (physical function), and HADS and SF-36 (psychosocial function). Nevertheless, this review highlights the considerable heterogeneity of outcomes measures in outpatient and home-based rehabilitation studies for COVID-19. While potential benefits are suggested, conclusions are limited by methodological quality and inconsistent outcome reporting. These results emphasize the need for standardized outcome measurement tools sets to improve comparability and enable meta-analyses.
Trial registration: The study protocol has been registered in the PROSPERO database dated 26th September 2022 (registration number CRD42022362933).
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