title: The effect of non-pharmacological staged interventions on fatigue and dyspnoea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of non-pharmacological staged interventions on fatigue and dyspnoea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 64 patients in a tertiary hospital in China from 2010 to 2011. Patients were randomly assigned to the control group (n = 32), who received routine care, and the intervention group (n = 32), who received additional non-pharmacological staged interventions. The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory and the five-grade Medical Research Council dyspnoea scale were used to collect data at baseline and after 6 weeks. Compared with the control group, patients in the intervention group had significantly lower scores on general fatigue (P < 0.001), physical fatigue (P < 0.001), reduced activity (P < 0.001) and reduced motivation (P = 0.03) and had better relief of dyspnoea (P = 0.02). Our study showed that non-pharmacological staged interventions were effective in relieving fatigue and dyspnoea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
authors: School of Nursing, Nanchang University, P.R. China.
authors: Guo-jin
authors: GJ
authors: Deng
authors: Fan-rong
authors: FR
authors: Liu
authors: Qing-ling
authors: QL
authors: Zhong
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Chen
authors: Mei-fang
authors: MF
authors: Yang
authors: Hong-gu
authors: HG
authors: He
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004417:Dyspnea; D005221:Fatigue; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; dyspnoea; fatigue; intervention; non-pharmacological