BackgroundPneumoconiosis patients receive community-based or home-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for symptom management and enhancement of physical and mental well-being. This study aimed to review the clinical benefits of community-based rehabilitation programmes (CBRP) and home-based rehabilitation programmes (HBRP) for PR of pneumoconiosis patients.MethodsArchival data of pneumoconiosis patients who participated in CBRP and HBRP between 2008 and 2011 was analysed. There were 155 and 26 patients in the CBRP and HBRP respectively. The outcome measures used in the pre- and post-tests were Knowledge, Health Survey Short Form-12 (SF-12), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), 6-Min Walk Test (6MWT), and Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ). Paired t-tests and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) using the patients’ baseline lung functions as the covariates were performed to examine the changes in the outcomes after completing the programmes. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between patient’s programme participation factors and different scores of the outcome measures.ResultsAfter controlling for patients’ baseline lung capacities, significant improvements were revealed among patients participated in CBRP in the scores of the 6MWT, Knowledge, HADS, SF-12 PCS, and CRQ emotion and mastery. The different scores in the Knowledge and HADS were correlated with the patients’ levels of programme participation. In contrast, significant improvements were only found in the scores of the Knowledge and 6MWT among patients who participated in HBRP. The gain scores of the 6MWT were correlated with the patients’ levels of programme participation.ConclusionsBoth CBRP and HBRP benefited patients’ levels of exercise tolerance and knowledge about the disease. CBRP provided greater benefits to patients’ mental and psychosocial needs. In contrast, HBRP was found to improve patients’ physical function, but did not have significant impacts on patients’ mental health and health-related quality of life. The attendance of patients and the participation of their relatives in treatment sessions were important factors in enhancing the positive effects of CBRP and HBRP. These positive outcomes confirm the value of pulmonary rehabilitation programmes for community-dwelling pneumoconiosis patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12890-018-0692-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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A small, low-power, lightweight arc plasma generator is described which is highly efficient electrically. The design, which utilises a small permanent magnet, has enabled electrode erosion problems to be solved, and the generator can be tuned to operate continuously on a variety of gaseous feedstocks (for example Nz, CH4, Ha) with high stability and without the necessity for any noble monatomic gas additives.The fine tuning also enables the generator setting to be optimised selectively for particular atomic states, while the interchangeable anode construction has allowed species generated within the arc to be expanded into a variety of pressures with low recombination losses. These facilities are of potential use both in academic studies (lasers, molecular beams etc) and in practical combustion situations.

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