The benefit of prehabilitation appeared more pronounced, with borderline significance, in patients undergoing “other” (non-colorectal) surgeries (RR = 0.54, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.99, p=0.05) compared to those undergoing colorectal surgery (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.34, p=0.31).
Result interpretation and mechanism exploration Potential Benefit in Frail Populations: This review identified a clear trend towards benefit (RR = 0.53) from prehabilitation in patients explicitly diagnosed as frail, with a point estimate superior to the overall population.
Although this result did not reach statistical significance, the point estimate suggests a trend towards a lower complication burden (fewer complications per patient) in the prehabilitation group.