Home-based prehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials

Prehabilitation aims to enhance preoperative functional capacity through exercise, nutrition, and psychological programs. Home-based prehabilitation represents an alternative to hospital prehabilitation, with the advantage of not utilising hospital resources. This review aims to evaluate adherence and clinical effectiveness of home-based prehabilitation.

We searched PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase up to October 1, 2024 for randomised controlled trials comparing home-based prehabilitation with standard care. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with postoperative complications. Secondary outcomes included protocol adherence, and 6-min walking test. We used risk ratios (RR) and mean differences to summarise the results. The risk of bias was assessed using RoB 2 tool.

We included 29 randomised trials for a total of 3508 patients. Median adherence to home-based prehabilitation programs was 82%. Home-based prehabilitation reduced the proportion of patients with postoperative complications (508/1322 [38.4%] vs 578/1335 [43.3%], risk ratio 0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.72-0.98, P=0.02, I²=44%, low certainty). After home-based prehabilitation, 6-min walking test performance was better compared with control (MD 28.2 m (95% CI 9.5-46.9; P<0.01, I²=48). Preoperative depression (MD -0.65, 95% CI -0.87 to -0.43; P<0.001, I²=0%), postoperative anxiety (MD -0.50, 95% CI -0.75 to -0.25; P<0.001, I²=0%, low certainty) and length of hospital stays (MD -0.32 days, 95% CI -0.61 to -0.03; P=0.03, I²=45%, low certainty) were lower with home-based prehabilitation.

Home-based prehabilitation reduced the proportion of patients with postoperative complications, but with low certainty of evidence. It also improved preoperative functional capacity, reduced hospital stays, depression and anxiety scores, with good adherence to the intervention.

PROSPERO (CRD42024591208).