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The relationship between physical activity and health status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease following pulmonary rehabilitation

Abstract Aim: To investigate the relationship between physical activity (PA) and measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and hospital admissions in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) following pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). Method: CINAHL, Medline, PubMed, AMED, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library (database inception to July 2014) were searched. Relevant outcomes included relationships between PA and HRQoL, lung function (forced expiratory volume in one second, FEV1) and/or hospital admission. Six quantitative and 11 qualitative studies were included and Harden’s method of data synthesis in a mixed-methods systematic review was applied. Results: Six months following PR, increase activity levels was associated with improvement of 62m in 6MWD, 2.31 and 15.55 points increase in SGRQ and CRDQ total scores, respectively, 1.3% FEV1 and reduced dyspnoea. No study reported on hospital admission. Reported relationships were facilitated by healthcare professionals, social supporters, motivation and encouragement, reduced fear and seeing benefits and hindered by changing physical health, environment, lack of motivation, fear and social isolation. Conclusion: The associations between increased levels of PA and quality of life, respiratory function and dyspnoea are largely based on 6MWD and PA questionnaires. Objective measurement of free living activity in exercise maintenance phase is required along with participants’ views. Implications for rehabilitation Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a non-therapeutic intervention in which a team of multidisciplinary health care professionals use individually tailored supervised exercise training, self-management education, psychological and social support to optimize the physical and social performance and autonomy of patients with chronic respiratory impairment. Initial benefits from PR decline after program completion. Clinical guidelines advocate increase exercise and activity in sustaining initial benefits of PR. Following PR, increased levels of physical activity in people with COPD undertaking exercise maintenance programmes are positively related with improvements in exercise capacity, quality of life and dyspnoea. Barriers to activity participation in exercise maintenance programmes, which need to be overcome, are fear, lack of motivation, environmental factors, such as social isolation and changes in physical health. Rehabilitation professionals and social supporters can make rehabilitation more long-lasting and facilitate people with COPD to participate in activity by motivating and encouraging them, reducing their fears and reinforcing the benefits of activity participation.