title: Efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation in an Irish population.
abstract: This study evaluated the results after 8 and 52 weeks of a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation programme for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Ireland. 170 patients with clinical and physiological evidence of COPD (mean FEV1 43.1 +/- 17.0%pred.) were recruited into an 8 week programme. At the time of final evaluation 15 patients had died, 25 patients had not been compliant with required attendances and 1 patient had transferred to another programme. To date assessments of 106 of the remaining 129 patients were made after eight weeks and of 78 patients after 1 year. Assessment consisted of pulmonary function testing; exercise tolerance as measured by a progressive maximal walking test (shuttle walk test) and an endurance test (treadmill test); quality of life (QoL) as measured by the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRDQ), the St. George's Hospital Questionnaire (SGHQ) and the Breathing Problems Questionnaire (BPQ); and perceived dyspnoea on the Borg scale. Significant improvements in exercise tolerance, (shuttle p<.001, treadmill p<.001), QoL, (BPQ p<.001, CRDQ p<.001, SGHQ p<.001) and dyspnoea (p<.001) were demonstrated after 8 weeks. These improvements were maintained at 1 year. These results suggest that pulmonary rehabilitation can increase exercise tolerance and improve QoL in patients with COPD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, St. Michael 's Hospital, Dublin.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: O'Shea
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: O'Driscoll
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Concannon
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: McDonnell
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015444:Exercise; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011379:Prognosis; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome