OBJECTIVE: To identify and compare interventions for upper extremity (UE) motor recovery poststroke in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in high-income countries (HICs) and low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). DATA SOURCE: Systematic searches were conducted for RCTs published in English in 5 databases (CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) up to April 2021, in line with PRISMA guidelines. STUDY SELECTION: RCTs, including crossover design, were included if they were in English and evaluated an intervention for poststroke UE motor rehabilitation, in an adult population (>= 18y) diagnosed with stroke. DATA EXTRACTION: Data on country of origin and type of intervention in each RCT were extracted using a data extraction template in Covidence software. Study screenings and data extraction were performed by 2 independent reviewers. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 1276 RCTs met the inclusion criteria, with 978 RCTs conducted in HICs and 298 in LMICs. A significantly larger proportion of RCTs evaluating robotics and task-specific training interventions were conducted in HICs, compared to LMICs (p < 0.0009). In contrast, a higher proportion of RCTs conducted in LMICs examined acupuncture (p < 0.0001) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) (p = 0.001) when compared to HICs. CONCLUSIONS: Poststroke rehabilitation in LMICs is conducted in a lower resource environment when compared to HICs. Some differences exist in the use of UE motor rehabilitation interventions between LMICs and HICs such as robotics, task-specific training, rTMS, and acupuncture; however, there was no significant difference between HICs and LMICs for most interventions.

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