Community-based rehabilitation for people with disabilities in low-and middle-income countries

Peer-reviewed article
(2015 Sep) Cambell Systematic Reviews


Iemmi V, Kumar S, Blanchet K, Hartley S, Murthy V, Patel V, et al


This Campbell systematic review looks at the evidence from different types of community‐ based rehabilitation interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries, which target different types of physical and mental disabilities. This review summarises findings from 15 studies, six which focus on physical disabilities and nine on mental disabilities.

Moderate to high quality evidence shows that community‐ based rehabilitation has a positive impact on people with disabilities.

Of six studies focusing on CBR for people with physical disabilities, three showed a beneficial effect of the intervention for stroke on a range of outcomes while one found a smaller effect; one study found a beneficial impact of CBR for arthritis; and one showed a positive impact of CBR for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The nine studies assessing the impact of CBR for people with mental disabilities showed a beneficial effect on schizophrenia (5 studies), dementia (3 studies) and intellectual disability (1 study).

None of the studies that met the review's inclusion criteria included economic evaluations of community‐based rehabilitation.