Physical activity, rehabilitation, and recreation among populations affected by the war in Ukraine: a thematic review
Сергій Єрмаков, Constantin Ciorbă, Vladimir Potop · Physical Culture Recreation and Rehabilitation · 2026
Background: and Study
Aim: . The prolonged war in Ukraine has affected multiple population groups and has increased the relevance of approaches addressing physical and mental health, functional independence, and social participation. Physical activity, physical rehabilitation, adaptive sport, and recreation represent distinct but potentially complementary areas of support that require systematic consideration. The
aim of this study was to systematize the scientific evidence on the use of physical activity, physical rehabilitation, adaptive sport, and recreation among different population groups affected by the war in Ukraine.
Materials and methods: . Publications from 1 March 2022 to 1 September 2026 were searched in the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed/MEDLINE. Initially, 1,349 records were identified; after data standardization and deduplication, 823 unique publications remained. Automated thematic selection was performed using a structured terminology dictionary, TF-IDF vectorization, cosine similarity, the CRITIC
Method: , and a sequential greedy algorithm. Of the 135 publications that met the thematic criteria, 50 were automatically selected, providing 90.3% of the calculated thematic coverage. Following content-based assessment, 48 publications were included in the main analysis; two additional publications were retained as contextual sources. Owing to heterogeneity in study designs, interventions, and assessed outcomes, a descriptive thematic synthesis was applied.
Results: . Of the 48 included publications, 39 (81.3%) were published in 2024–2026, and 29 (60.4%) reported empirical data. Publications involving military personnel, veterans, wounded individuals, and their family members accounted for 54.2% of the analytical corpus. Medical and physical rehabilitation and psychological and psychosocial support were the most widely represented areas. Individual studies reported improvements in functional independence, mobility, balance, walking, and psycho-emotional outcomes. Studies addressing physical activity, adaptive sport, and recreational, nature-based, creative, and digital approaches mainly reported feasibility and acceptability or short-term positive changes in selected outcomes. Direct comparison of
Findings: was limited by heterogeneity in sample characteristics, study designs, intervention content, assessed outcomes, and follow-up duration.
Conclusions: . The evidence reviewed encompasses interconnected functional, psychological, and social dimensions of support for populations affected by the war in Ukraine. Physical activity, adaptive sport, and recreation may complement medical, physical, psychological, and psychosocial rehabilitation, but the available evidence more consistently characterizes their feasibility, acceptability, and potential benefits than their comparative effectiveness. Heterogeneity of the available studies and limited long-term follow-up preclude definitive
conclusions regarding the effectiveness of individual approaches. Further research should prioritize standardized outcomes, underrepresented population groups, controlled study designs, and long-term follow-up.