Maintenance Schedules Following Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a preventable and treatable condition, is a major healthcare problem with huge human and economic costs. It affects 3 million people, results in 1.4 million consultations, causes 30,000 deaths, and costs £800M per year in the UK. Considerable research expenditure is devoted to finding new and expensive interventions. However pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an available therapeutic option with good evidence of benefit for patients in terms of quality of life and daily functioning. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the addition of a maintenance programme following pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD when compared to standard care. The secondary objective is to identify baseline characteristics that will predict improvement in pulmonary rehabilitation programmes and adherence to maintenance strategies. By measuring a series of demographic, clinical, physiological, psychological and biochemical parameters the researchers hope to be able to predict those patients who are likely to receive the greatest benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation. An additional objective will be to prepare a detailed maintenance programme manual. This will be available to other centres providing pulmonary rehabilitation at the conclusion of the study