title: Time invested in the global respiratory care of cystic fibrosis paediatrics patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Respiratory therapy is a keystone of the treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease, but it is time consuming.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to assess the total time spent on respiratory therapy, including chest physiotherapy (CPT) and physical activity (PA), as well as inhalation therapy (IT) and maintenance of materials (MM) to rationalise and optimise treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional prospective study in a paediatric CF cohort. A questionnaire was developed to look at the time spent on respiratory care over 3 months. Enrolled in this study are all CF patients aged from 6 to 16 years (the exclusion criterion was lung transplantation).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 40 enrolled patients, 22 participated (13 boys and 9 girls), with a mean age of 11 years. The patients spent approximately 19.46 h per week (standard deviation ± 7.53, 8.00-35.25 h) on therapy: CPT (30.58%), IT (15.11%), PA (50%) and MM (4.32%), without statistical significance between sexes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our cohort, CF patients spent an average of nearly 20 h a week in respiratory therapy, within a wide range of between 8 h to almost 36 h a week. PA consumes almost half of the time. Physicians have to take into consideration the burden of the treatment, to optimise the therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Respiratory Unit, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gaudenz M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Hafen
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kernen
authors.forename: Quentin M
authors.initials: QM
authors.lastname: De Halleux
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012138:Respiratory Therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: cystic fibrosis; physical activity; physiotherapy; time