The Effect of Telerehabilitation on People with SensoryDisabilities: A Systematic Review

Introduction: sensory disabilities, including hearing or speech and vision loss, are thesecond biggest contributor to rehabilitation needs in terms of the number of affected people.therefore, the aim of this systematic review of randomized clinical trial was to investigate theeffect of telerehabilitation on people with sensory disabilities, including hearing, speech andvisual impairments.methods: a systematic review was conducted in a randomized controlled trial (rct), pilot,and protocols for rct studies without time limit by searching for keywords in the title,abstract and study keywords in valid scientific databases embase, web of science, scopus,and pubmed on october 23, 2021. we followed the prisma (preferred reporting items forsystematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines.results: in total, 1080 documents were initially retrieved through scientific databasesearching. finally, 8 eligible studies were found through this review. the quality assessmentresults showed that there was no significant bias in the studies and all quality studies wereincluded. the sample sizes in the studies ranged from 21 to 203 participants. follow-upperiods ranged from 6 weeks to 12 months. of the 8 included studies, 4 were experimentaland did not provide definitive results. however, in 4 studies, patients reported improvementsin hearing, speech, mental status, quality of life, and self-care skills.conclusion: the results of the present systematic review revealed that using telerehabilitationimproves the provision of rehabilitation services in patients with sensory disabilities (hearing,speech, and visual impairment). hence, telerehabilitation is a safe, effective, and feasible toolfor providing telerehabilitation services.