Telerehabilitation Improves QoL, Physical Functions and Compliance in Patients With COPD

Summary

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Background and Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the 3rd global cause of deaths. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the standard treatment for this disease. However, the dropout rate remains high (33-50%) because of traffic issues and patients' low mobility. Therefore, telerehab...

Background and Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the 3rd global cause of deaths. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the standard treatment for this disease. However, the dropout rate remains high (33-50%) because of traffic issues and patients' low mobility. Therefore, telerehabilitation seems to be a better way to deliver PR. Using videos to deliver PR is not only easy to manipulate on the cellphone or ipad, but also improve patients' attention and compliance. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess whether tailor-made PR video rehabilitation program improves patients' quality of life (QoL), muscle strengths, cardiopulmonary functions, and compliance. Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial with 6-week follow-up. Participants were medically stable COPD patients and able to use LINE and YOUTUBE in cellphone. In the process of recruitment, they were all assessed by time-up-and-go test. The performance of time-up-and-go test should be lower than 12 seconds to rule out the participants with high risks of falling. They were randomly assigned to control group or intervention group to conduct 6-week home-based PR program. Patients in control group received the education booklet with words and pictures. Patients in intervention group watched YOUTUBE videos to rehab and recorded the intensity after the exercise by RPE scores. During the intervention, a physical therapist would have weekly telephone calls or LINE calls for 6 times to monitor and modify the intensity of exercise. The videos included 5-minute breathing reeducation, 20-minute interval strengthening exercise and 5-minute education animation. All patients were assessed the performance of spirometry, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), questionnaires about symptoms, QoL, muscle strengths and distances of 6-minute walk test (6MWT) before intervention, after intervention and after 6-week follow-up.

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