Home-Based Respiratory Physiotherapy and Telephone-Based Psychological Support for COVID-19 Survivors in Peru: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Both pulmonary and mental health are affected following hospitalization for COVID-19 pneumonia. Pulmonary rehabilitation therapy has demonstrated benefits in improving mental health, but no validated combined programs that include mental health have been proposed.

Objective: This article presents the design of a trial that aimed to assess whether the participation in a combined rehabilitation program that includes home-based respiratory physiotherapy and telephone-based psychological support is associated with a greater improvement of pulmonary and mental health outcomes 7-12 weeks after COVID-19 hospitalization discharge compared with posthospital usual care provided by a public Peruvian hospital.