Self-Directed Exergaming for Stroke Upper Limb Impairment Increases Exercise Dose Compared to Standard Care

Background. One of the strongest modifiable determinants of rehabilitation outcome is exercise dose. Technologies enabling self-directed exercise offer a pragmatic means to increase dose, but the extent to which they achieve this in unselected cohorts, under real-world constraints, is poorly understood. Objective. Here we quantify the exercise dose achieved by inpatient stroke survivors using an adapted upper limb (UL) exercise gaming (exergaming) device and compare this with conventional (supervised) therapy. Methods. Over 4 months, patients presenting with acute stroke and associated UL impairment were screened at a single stroke centre. Participants were trained in a single session and provided with the device for unsupervised use during their inpatient admission. Results. From 75 patients referred for inpatient UL therapy, we recruited 30 (40%), of whom 26 (35%) were able to use the device meaningfully with their affected UL. Over a median enrolment time of 8 days (IQR: 5–14), self-directed UL exercise duration using the device was 26 minutes per day (median; IQR: 16–31), in addition to 25 minutes daily conventional UL therapy (IQR: 12–34; same cohort plus standard care audit; joint n = 50); thereby doubling total exercise duration (51 minutes; IQR: 32–64) relative to standard care (Z = 4.0, P <.001). The device enabled 104 UL repetitions per day (IQR: 38–393), whereas conventional therapy achieved 15 UL repetitions per day (IQR: 11–23; Z = 4.3, P <.001). Conclusion. Self-directed adapted exergaming enabled participants in our stroke inpatient cohort to increase exercise duration 2-fold, and repetitions 8-fold, compared to standard care, without requiring additional professional supervision.