Toward Breaking the Recovery Plateau in Chronic Rehabilitation: An Integrative Framework of Biodiversity Exposure, Lifestyle Intervention, and ICT-Based Monitoring

Author

Ryota Sakayama and Tatsuya Kawaoka and Masatoshi Funabashi

Abstract

Functional recovery in chronic-phase rehabilitation is frequently characterised by a plateau, representing a major challenge in long-term care. While nature-based and lifestyle interventions have shown promising associations with physiological improvements, their integration with ICT-based monitoring and their applicability in resource-limited clinical settings remain underexplored. In this study, we propose an ICT-integrated framework that combines biodiversity exposure, personalised lifestyle intervention, and continuous behavioural monitoring. We report observational findings from a chronic-phase cerebrovascular accident (CVA) cohort, where improvements in motor function and physiological indicators were observed following an integrated intervention. Notably, the observed improvement in gait speed corresponds to a large effect size in a context where recovery is typically considered to plateau. To address implementation barriers such as spatial constraints and delayed biomarker fe edback, we developed a streamlined model integrating compact ecological units (Syneco Portal) and an Adaptive Health Self-Assessment System (AHSAS). This framework enabled continuous, low-burden monitoring and daily ecological exposure across diverse care contexts. Rather than isolating the effects of individual components, the findings highlight measurable system-level changes emerging from the interaction of ecological, behavioural, and ICT-based processes. These results support the feasibility of an integrated ecological–behavioural–ICT framework as a practical infrastructure for adaptive rehabilitation in complex and resource-constrained environments.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5220/0014968700004027