Utilization of rehabilitation health professions' services in chronic stroke: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND

People living with stroke (PLwS) face enduring multidimensional health-related needs. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language therapy – collectively referred to as rehabilitation health professions – play a central role in rehabilitation, functional maintenance, and self-management support, helping to address these complex needs. Despite known benefits, chronic-stage utilization remains unclear. Given the importance of this topic to clinical practice, policy, and health service delivery, we aim to examine the extent of rehabilitation health professions services utilization, and the methods used for collecting this data among PLwS.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA for Scoping Reviews framework. A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science for studies published between January 2010 and November 2025.

RESULTS

Fourteen of 3,291 screened studies were included, comprising data on 206,584 individuals with chronic stroke from 12 countries. Data were collected via self-reports or electronic databases covering approximately 10-years post-stroke chronicity. Utilization rates (i.e., proportion of post-stroke individuals using services) varied substantially across studies and types of services, ranging from 6% to 72% at 6–12 months post-stroke, and from 4% to 34% beyond 12 months, with a 12% median utilization rate from 1 year post-stroke onward.

CONCLUSIONS

Long-term utilization of rehabilitation health professions’ services post-stroke is sparsely reported in the literature. Low and declining utilization underscores the need for sustainable care models that reconnect survivors to healthcare systems and support follow-up, functional recovery, and participation.