OBJECTIVE: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to determine the effect of pulmonary rehabilitation on functional capacity and quality of life in interstitial lung diseases including also caused by coronaviruses. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and MedRxiv from inception to November 2020 were searched to identify documents. STUDY SELECTION: Publications investigating the effect of pulmonary rehabilitation on lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC)), exercise capacity (six min walking distance (6MWD)), health related quality of life (HRQoL) and dyspnoea were searched. DATA EXTRACTION: The data were extracted into predesigned data extraction tables. Risk of bias was evaluated with the Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB 2.0). DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 11 RCTs with 637 interstitial lung disease patients were eligible for analyses. The pooled effect sizes of the association for pulmonary rehabilitation were 0.37 (95%CI 0.02 to 0.71) for FVC, 44.55 (95%CI 32.46 to 56.64) for 6MWD, 0.52 (95%CI 0.22 to 0.82) for HRQoL and 0.39 (95%CI -0.08 to 0.87) for dyspnoea. After translating these findings considering clinical improvements, pulmonary rehabilitation intervention increased predicted FVC by 5.5%, the 6MWD test by 44.55 meters and HRQoL improved by 3.9 points compared to baseline values. Results remained similar in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: While specific evidence for pulmonary rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients emerges, our data support that interstitial lung disease rehabilitation could be considered as an effective therapeutic strategy to improve the functional capacity and quality of life of this kind of patients.

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