According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of mid-September 2022, more than 21 million Brazilians have recovered from COVID-19. However, post-infection symptoms continue to appear months after the end of the acute infection, a syndrome called long COVID. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the responses of fascia-focused manual therapy in participants with long COVID.
Participants reported to have long COVID, of both sexes, aged between 20 and 80 years, from the community, outpatient clinics and hospitals will be evaluated. The treatment of participants will be carried out at the CEFID-UDESC Physiotherapy School Clinic, where they will undergo assessment of the biomechanical and viscoelastic properties of tissues, postural control, pain and quality of life. For normality analysis, the Shapiro-Wilk test will be applied, and according to the distribution of the data, parametric or non-parametric tests will be used. Pre- and post-assessment and treatment data will be compared using descriptive statistics and Student's t-test with a significance level of p=0.05 for parametric data or Wilcoxon for non-parametric data.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
30
Folder that will be given to the participant to carry out 5 minutes of intervention daily
The intervention will be carried out once a week for 30 minutes for 6 weeks. It will include passive, active-assisted moments (with and without load). In addition to a folder that will be given to the participant to carry out 5 minutes of intervention daily.
Santa Catarina State University
Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
RECRUITINGFunctioning and disability
Will be assessed using the "World Health Organization Disability Assessment" questionnaire (WHO-DAS 2.0), translated and validated for the Brazilian population by Silveira et al. (2013).
Time frame: 6 weeks
Biomechanical and tissue viscoelastic properties
Will be evaluated by MyotonPro (MytonPro, Myoton Ltd.s., Tartu, Estonia)
Time frame: 6 weeks
Work capacity
Will be assessed by the "Work Limitations Questionnaire, WLQ-25" translated and validated for the Brazilian population by Soárez et al (2007).
Time frame: 6 weeks
Level of Quality of life
Will be assessed by the "World Health Organization Questionnaire" in its short version, validated in the Brazilian population and by the "Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health" questionnaire Survey" validated for Brazilian-Portuguese.
Time frame: 6 weeks
Upper limb dysfunctions
Will be assessed using the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Dysfunctions questionnaire (DASH), translated and validated for the Brazilian population by Orfale et al (2005).
Time frame: 6 weeks
Balance
Will be assessed using the Neurocom Balance Platform (VRS Sport) and its NeuroCom®Balance Manager program (Neurocom International, Inc, Clackamas, OR).
Time frame: 6 weeks
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