ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the effects of rehabilitation training combined with health education on quality of life and psychological state of elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods A total of 108 elderly inpatients with moderate to severe COPD in stable conditions were randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group,with 54 patients in each group.The patients in both groups received general respiratory medical therapy.The patients in intervention group also received additional comprehensive rehabilitation training consisting of individualized exercise instructions and health education,while the patients in control group only received online telephone health education and rehabilitation training instruction.Patients in both groups were assessed by using St.George's respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ) and symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) before and after one year of treatment.Results After treatment,the control group's scores for various SGRQ items were similar to the scores within the group before treatment (P ＞ 0.05).The intervention group's SGRQ scores for symptoms,mobility and impact on life and the total score were (42.12 ± 11.32),(45.17 ± 10.23),(29.98 ± 6.54) and (41.02±9.92),respectively,significantly different from their baseline values and those of the control group after treatment (P ＜ 0.01).After treatment,the intervention group's SCL-90 scores were significantly improved from baseline values and were also significantly different from the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Comparison between the two groups showed that throughout the treatment period,the number of patients with acute attacks and the number of patients' hospitalization due to acute attacks were statistically significantly lower in the intervention group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Rehabilitation training combined with health education can significantly improve quality of life and psychological health of COPD patients.