Balance and functionality post-physiotherapeutic interventions among long COVID cases in the Amazon

Abstract

Introduction: Among the sequelae of COVID-19, muscle weakness, acute episodes of dyspnea and fatigue, impaired motor coordination, superficial sensitivity, balance, and memory are prominent, characterizing post-COVID-19 syndrome or long COVID. Evidence-based neurofunctional physiotherapy is a treatment option for rehabilitating balance and functionality. Objectives: To assess balance and functionality in individuals with Long COVID before and after applying a neurofunctional physiotherapy protocol. Methods: A non-randomized clinical trial (quasi-experimental study), uncontrolled, paired before and after, prospective, case series, with a quantitative approach, involving 10 participants who presented neuromuscular manifestations associated with COVID-19, who underwent 25 sessions of the Neurofunctional protocol. The variables analyzed were: balance (Berg Balance Scale), basic activities of daily living - BADLs (KATZ Index), and instrumental activities of daily living - IADLs (Lawton Scale). Based on this, qualitative variables were analyzed by absolute and relative frequencies, and quantitative variables by means and standard deviation (± SD). In the analytical approach, data pairing before and after the intervention was evaluated using the Wilcoxon test. Results: Most participants were female (70%), aged between 37 and 64 years (50.80 ± 8.85), and 70% had systemic arterial hypertension. The physiotherapy intervention showed beneficial changes in balance (p = 0.034) and IADLs (p = 0.026) in the sample, which were statistically significant. Conclusion: The neurofunctional physiotherapy protocol was effective in improving balance and increasing independence in IADLs in long COVID, with no significant changes in BADLs.