A simple and easy home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme for patients with chronic lung diseases.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a simple and easy home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme and investigate its effectiveness.


METHODS
Patients with stable chronic lung disease were divided into a rehabilitation group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 18). Rehabilitation consisted of education and 12 weeks of enforced aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercises. Aerobic exercise training was performed mostly by walking based on the functional capacity of the patients assessed by the maximal incremental exercise test. Patients visited hospital every two weeks for evaluation and a new exercise regimen.


RESULTS
Five patients dropped out of the rehabilitation group but three were due to development of unrelated diseases, five controls did not co-operate in the second evaluation. After 12 weeks of rehabilitation, exercise capacity (maximum work load and VO2max), exercise endurance, 6-minute walking distance, and quality of life measured by the St. George Respiratory Questionnaire had significantly improved in the rehabilitation group but not in the controls. At a follow-up evaluation one year after the rehabilitation, some exercise parameters were still significantly higher than baseline in the rehabilitation group.


CONCLUSIONS
We developed a simple home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme, which seems to be clinically feasible and effective.
Na
Joo Ock
JO
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Dong Soon
DS
Yoon
Seong Ho
SH
Jegal
Yang Jin
YJ
Kim
Woo Sung
WS
Kim
Eung Suk
ES
Kim
Myung Wha
MW
D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome