Long-term Outcome of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Patients With COPD

Changes in personal control as a predictor of quality of life after pulmonary rehabilitation

“…The results of pulmonary rehabilitation, however, are often not maintained for a long period [10,31]. Previous studies have argued that perceptions of personal control influence patients' motivation [20] to exert effort for certain activities, and have been associated with lifestyle changes, such as physical exercise and smoking cessation [13,14].…”

“…Previous research did report significant improvements in physical functioning measured by the SF-36 [48,49], thereby demonstrating the sensitivity of this measure to assess changes in QoL during rehabilitation. The COPD patients in this study were in advanced stages of their illnesses and therefore, the possibilities for improvement with respect to physical aspects of QoL were probably limited [31]. Previous research has shown that during the course of their illness, COPD patients gradually decline with respect to pulmonary function and with respect to physical and other domains of QoL [37,50].…”

“…Moreover, the assessed patients with COPD were quite seriously ill with respect to their lung function parameters (stage III of the GOLD classification (global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease) [2], indicating serious COPD). Consequently, on the basis of previous research [31], only modest changes in QoL during rehabilitation were expected. Second, we studied whether changes in mastery and self-efficacy were related to a higher QoL after rehabilitation.…”

“…Though a number of studies have reported the effects of rehabilitation on exercise tolerance and QoL [28], these effects often decrease in the long term [10,24,29,30]. Positive effects of rehabilitation are difficult to achieve and many patients experience relapse, even if they initially improved during rehabilitation [31,32]. As a result, patients with lower perceptions of personal control may fail to attain their goals during rehabilitation or may more easily relapse afterwards.…”

Rehabilitation and Its Concern

“…Some studies have analyzed the long-term outcome of rehabilitation on quality of life. Ketelaars et al (1997) evaluated the long-term effect of rehabilitation on HRQL. She reported that patients with moderate HRQL scores upon admission had the greatest decline after 9 months of followup, despite having made substantial gains in HRQL by the end of the initial rehabilitation program.…”