Current Trends in Virtual Exercise Interventions Among People With Disabilities: A Scoping Review

To analyze existing literature on virtual exercise interventions delivered to people with disabilities to assess effectiveness, efficiency, usability, satisfaction, and feasibility, and describe current trends that aimed to improve health outcomes among people with disabilities.

CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO were searched.

Articles were included if they were (1) incorporated a virtual exercise intervention including people with physical disabilities and mobility limitations aged 18 years and older and (2) published between the years of 2009-August 14, 2024 with free access to full-text, peer-reviewed papers; and (3) published in English. Exclusion criteria: (1) unrelated to disability; (2) non-peer-reviewed articles; (3) protocol or review papers; (4) study focused on virtual exercise through perspective other than that of the participant; (5) study's primary objectives were not related to physical functioning and/or rehabilitation; and (6) study used only qualitative methods.

A single search was conducted from January 2023 and ceased on August 14, 2023. Duplicate records were pulled from the article search within each database; article abstracts were assessed; and finally, full-text articles were retained upon meeting inclusion criteria. The primary researcher conducted the initial search, while 2 independent reviewers, J.R. and J.W., assisted with and confirmed article extraction.

Thirty-seven articles were included. Trends were explained by recapitulating statistically significant results per study among each disability group and virtual exercise delivery mode, exercise type, and intervention synchronicity.

More facilitators, satisfaction, usability, and perceived benefits were reported when compared to reported barriers among people with physical disabilities and mobility limitations who participated in virtual exercise interventions.