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
. 2024 Jun 12;33(172):230236.
doi: 10.1183/16000617.0236-2023. Print 2024 Apr.

Protected characteristics reported in pulmonary rehabilitation: a scoping review

Holly Drover  1   2 , Lucy Gardiner  3   2 , Sally J Singh  3   2 , Rachael A Evans  3   2 , Enya Daynes  3   2   4 , Mark W Orme  3   2   4
Affiliations

Protected characteristics reported in pulmonary rehabilitation: a scoping review

Holly Drover et al. Eur Respir Rev. .

Abstract

Background: An individual's characteristics are reported to influence access, completion and outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation and may contribute to health inequalities. Many countries have policies to promote equity among individuals' characteristics, including the UK Equality Act 2010 which lists nine protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation).

Objectives: To describe the extent to which UK Equality Act 2010 protected characteristics have been collected and reported in UK studies and audits of pulmonary rehabilitation.

Methods: A scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews guidelines was conducted using five databases. UK studies and audits collecting data on pulmonary rehabilitation from 1 October 2010 (date of Equality Act 2010 inception) were eligible. The protected characteristics collected and how they were reported were extracted.

Results: Out of 45 included studies and audits (41 studies and four audits), 98% (k=44) reported age. Sex was reported in 40% (k=18), and 20% (k=9) reported gender with only male and female categories. Half (50%, k=2) of audits reported gender with male, female and transgender categories. Race was reported through ethnicity in 2% (k=1) of studies and 75% (k=3) of audits. No studies or audits explicitly reported disability, but all reported measures indicating disease severity (e.g. forced expiratory volume in 1 s % predicted: 67%, k=30). No studies or audits reported marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

Conclusions: Protected characteristics are not commonly reported or are inconsistently reported in UK pulmonary rehabilitation studies and audits. Without reporting these characteristics, health inequalities in pulmonary rehabilitation will remain unclear.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: All authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 flow diagram. Reproduced from [100] with permission. CINAHL: Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; UK: United Kingdom.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Summary of the protected characteristics reported in the included research studies.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Summary of the protected characteristics reported in the included audits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Spruit MA, Singh SJ, Garvey C, et al. An official American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society statement: key concepts and advances in pulmonary rehabilitation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2013; 188: e13–e64. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201309-1634ST - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rochester CL, Alison JA, Carlin B, et al. Pulmonary rehabilitation for adults with chronic respiratory disease: an official American Thoracic Society clinical practice guideline. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2023; 208: e7–e26. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202306-1066ST - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. McCarthy B, McDonald CF. Review: pulmonary rehabilitation improves health-related QoL and exercise capacity more than usual care in COPD. Ann Intern Med 2015; 162: JC4. doi: 10.7326/ACPJC-2015-162-12-004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Houchen-Wolloff L, Williams JEA, Green RH, et al. Survival following pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD: the effect of program completion and change in incremental shuttle walking test distance. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis 2017; 13: 37–44. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S143101 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bennett D, Bowen B, McCarthy P, et al. Outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation for COPD in older patients: a comparative study. COPD 2017; 14: 170–175. doi: 10.1080/15412555.2016.1258051 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources