The effectiveness of nurse-led, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD in Turkey

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of nurse-led, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with stage 3 or 4 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the Global Initiative for COPD (GOLD) staging system. The study consisted of 32 patients--a nurse-led, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation group (16) and a control group (16). In the rehabilitation program, patients received education about their diseases and performed breathing exercises and lower- and upper-extremity aerobic exercises at their homes during the 3-month period of the study. There was meaningful improvement in the rehabilitation group in terms of pulmonary function tests (FEV1 % predicted value), artery blood gases (PaCO2), quality of life, dyspnea, and functional capacity. On the other hand, no meaningful change was observed in the control group. The study showed that the nurse-led, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation program had positive effects on the patients with COPD.