The LUMC and partners are the first to conduct research into the rehabilitation of the elderly in Europe, says professor of geriatric medicine Wilco Achterberg of the LUMC.
According to researcher Miriam Haaksma, too little is known about the recovery of patients who have undergone a corona infection. “But also about which patients benefit most from rehabilitation and what such a process would ideally look like.”
Of the hospitalized Covid-19 patients, the majority are over 70 years of age. Some have been on artificial respiration in intensive care. They were in bed for weeks, which significantly reduced their muscle mass and lung function. Rehabilitation is often needed to improve their condition.
This care is organized differently in each country. In the Netherlands, geriatric rehabilitation takes place mainly in nursing and care homes, says Haaksma. In Germany this is done in special rehabilitation clinics and in Russia patients mostly rehabilitate at home.
About twenty rehabilitation clinics have already cooperated the study promised. Among them the Leiden healthcare provider Topaz. The researchers collect the data of about fifty elderly ex-corona patients per participating country. The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Russia are participating.
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