Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 26:13:1021-1035.
doi: 10.2147/COPD.S155622. eCollection 2018.

Support needs of patients with COPD: a systematic literature search and narrative review

A Carole Gardener  1 , Gail Ewing  2 , Isla Kuhn  3 , Morag Farquhar  4
Affiliations

Support needs of patients with COPD: a systematic literature search and narrative review

A Carole Gardener et al. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. .

Abstract

Introduction: Understanding the breadth of patients' support needs is important for the delivery of person-centered care, particularly in progressive long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Existing reviews identify important aspects of managing life with COPD with which patients may need support (support needs); however, none of these comprehensively outlines the full range of support needs that patients can experience. We therefore sought to systematically determine the full range of support needs for patients with COPD to inform development of an evidence-based tool to enable person-centered care.

Methods: We conducted a systematic search and narrative review of the literature. Medline (Ovid), EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL were systematically searched for papers which included data addressing key aspects of support need, as identified by patients with COPD. Relevant data were extracted, and a narrative analysis was conducted.

Results: Thirty-one papers were included in the review, and the following 13 domains (broad areas) of support need were identified: 1) understanding COPD, 2) managing symptoms and medication, 3) healthy lifestyle, 4) managing feelings and worries, 5) living positively with COPD, 6) thinking about the future, 7) anxiety and depression, 8) practical support, 9) finance work and housing, 10) families and close relationships, 11) social and recreational life, 12) independence, and 13) navigating services. These 13 domains of support need were mapped to three of the four overarching categories of need commonly used in relevant national strategy documents (ie, physical, psychological, and social); however, support needs related to the fourth category (spiritual) were notably absent.

Conclusion: This review systematically identifies the comprehensive set of domains of support need for patients with COPD. The findings provide the evidence base for a tool to help patients identify and express their support needs, which underpins a proposed intervention to enable the delivery of person-centered care: the Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP).

Keywords: COPD; person-centered care; support needs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram. Abbreviation: PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Pinnock H, Kendall M, Murray S, et al. Living and dying with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: multi-perspective longitudinal qualitative study. Br Med J. 2011;342:d142. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kardos P, Vogelmeier C, Worth H, et al. A two-year evaluation of the ‘real life’ impact of COPD on patients in Germany: The DACCORD observational study. Respir Med. 2017;124:57–64. - PubMed
    1. Ouellette DR, Lavoie KL. Recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of cognitive and psychiatric disorders in patients with COPD. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2017;12:639–650. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sundh J, Ekstrom M. Persistent disabling breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2016;11:2805–2812. - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: A national framework for local action 2015–2020. [Accessed February 23, 2018]. Available from: www.endoflifecareambitions.org.uk.

Publication types

MeSH terms