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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Oct;18(9):1063-1070.
doi: 10.1177/17474930231152132. Epub 2023 Feb 3.

Association of post-stroke fatigue with physical activity and physical fitness: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Petra Larsson  1   2 , Julia Bidonde  3   4 , Unni Olsen  2   5 , Caryl L Gay  6   7 , Anners Lerdal  1   7 , Marie Ursin  8 , Gillian Elizabeth Mead  9 , Elisabeth Edvardsen  10   11
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Association of post-stroke fatigue with physical activity and physical fitness: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Petra Larsson et al. Int J Stroke. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Background: It has been hypothesized that post-stroke fatigue (PSF) is associated with reduced physical activity (PA) and impaired physical fitness (fitness). Understanding associations between PSF and PA, and/or fitness could help guide the development of targeted exercise interventions to treat PSF.

Aims: Our systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate PSF's associations with PA and fitness.

Summary of review: Following a registered protocol, we included studies with cross-sectional or prospective observational designs, published in English or a Scandinavian language, which reported an association of PSF with PA and/or fitness in adult stroke survivors. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, AMED, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ClinicalTrials.gov, and World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform from inception to November 30, 2022. Risk of bias was assessed using Quality in Prognosis Studies. Thirty-two unique studies (total n = 4721 participants, 55% male), and three study protocols were included. We used random-effects meta-analysis to pool data for PA and fitness outcomes, and vote-counting of direction of association to synthesize data that could not be meta-analyzed. We found moderate-certainty evidence of a weak association between higher PSF and impaired fitness (meta r = -0.24; 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.33, -0.15; n = 905, 7 studies), and very low-certainty evidence of no association between PSF and PA (meta r = -0.09; 95% CI = -0.34, 0.161; n = 430, 3 studies). Vote-counting showed a higher proportion of studies with associations between higher PSF and impaired fitness (pˆ = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.44, 0.97; p = 0.22, n = 298, 6 studies), and with associations between higher PSF and lower PA (pˆ = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.51, 0.90; p = 0.08, n = 2566, 16 studies). Very low- to moderate-certainty evidence reflects small study sample sizes, high risk of bias, and inconsistent results.

Conclusions: The meta-analysis showed moderate-certainty evidence of an association between higher PSF and impaired fitness. These results indicate that fitness might protect against PSF. Larger prospective studies and randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of exercise on PSF are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords: Associations; meta-analysis; physical activity; physical fitness; post-stroke fatigue; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Standardized association between post-stroke fatigue and physical activity. Results are shown for individual studies reporting Pearson’s correlation.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Standardized association between post-stroke fatigue and physical fitness. Results are shown for individual studies reporting Pearson’s correlation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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