Exclusion criteria were: (1) doctoral dissertations, (2) reports published in books, and (3) reports published conference proceedings. These exclusion criteria were used because books are considered secondary sources and reports in doctoral dissertations/conference proceedings are often not peer-reviewed. For the purpose of this systematic review, acute and subacute stages of stroke recovery were defined as 0–1 month, and 1–6 months after the onset of stroke, respectively. A post-stroke duration of more than six months was considered chronic.