The Effects of a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

Han, Suk Jung

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was designed to investigate the effects of a pulmonary rehabilitation program for patients with COPD. METHOD: 37 subjects, who had a FEV1/FVC below 70%, participated. 18 were assigned to the experimental group and 19 to the control group. The program consisted of individualized education program and exercise program for 6weeks, 3times a week. Data was collected through questionnaire surveys of general characteristics, anxiety and depression, blood tests for lactic acid and cardiopulmonary exercise tests, and also using bicycle ergometer, for exercise capacity. As for data analyses, paired and unpaired t-test and x2-test were adopted using an SPSS program. RESULT: The result revealed that the increase in VT, peak O2, Emax, HRmax and Wmax, at the maximal exercise, were significantly high in the experimental group. However, the anxiety and depression scores were not significantly high in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: The pulmonary rehabilitation program was effective in increasing cardiopulmonary endurance in patients with COPD. Accordingly, we should seriously consider an individualized pulmonary rehabilitation program as a nursing intervention.