Mapping the commonalities of rehabilitation: using GUIDE-rehab to open the black box of programmes across diverse health conditions

OBJECTIVE: Rehabilitation is a health strategy implemented with specific programmes across multiple health conditions. This study aimed to identify rehabilitation programmes' commonalities among health conditions and partners, as required by the PREPARE (Personalised REhabilitation via Novel AI PAtient StRatification StratEgies) project. DESIGN: Qualitative study. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS: Seven rehabilitation programmes in Europe covering diverse health conditions were chosen according to PREPARE research needs for their availability of large clinical databases. METHODS: The Guideline for Interventions Description in Rehabilitation (GUIDE-Rehab) was used to describe targets, components, and ingredients of rehabilitation programmes. These elements were mapped to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) domains. RESULTS: The programmes' interventions covered all ICF domains collectively, but not individually. Body functions and structures were the most frequent domains, whereas participation and contextual factors were underrepresented. Similar components (e.g., exercise, orthoses) were applied to different objectives depending on the underlying intervention theory. Pharmacological and surgical elements were also integral parts of rehabilitation programmes. CONCLUSION: We found differences and incomplete coverage of ICF domains in highly specialized programmes, incorporating organ-based and functioning-based approaches. Future studies should check (i) the generalizability and (ii) if results are justified by differences among health conditions or due to incomplete rehabilitation programmes/description.