Quantified walking and breathing exercises in the community rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the effects and feasibility of using walking and breathing exercises to help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the community.Methods A hundred and one communitydwelling patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were randomized into an experimental group (51 cases) and a control group (50 cases).The control group was given conventional pharmacotherapy,while the experimental group was given quantified walking (i.e.walking for a pre-set number of steps daily) and breathing exercises (15 minutes,3 sessions daily) to do at home for 48 weeks in addition to the conventional pharmacotherapy,.Both groups were evaluated before and after the 48 weeks of treatment using the 6-minute walk test (6MWT),a clinical COPD questionnaire,Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scoring,a general anxiety/depression questionnaire and a pulmonary function test.In addition,days of hospitalization and incidence of acute exacerbation were also recorded and compared between the 2 groups.Results Among the 101 cases,92 (91.1％) completed the study (45 in the experimental group,47 in the control group,a difference which was not statistically significant).After treatment,the average 6MWT distance in the experimental group was significantly increased and significantly greater than that in the control group.No statistically significant intra-group or inter-group differences were observed with regard to the pulmonary function test or the MRC dyspnea scores.Intra-group comparison and inter-group comparison of the clinical COPD questionnaire scores and anxiety/depression scores did,however,reveal statistically significant differences.There was no significant difference in the average number of acute attacks or in the length of hospital stays.Conclusions Quantified walking and breathing exercises are effective and feasible therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the community.