Abstract
Background: Patients with chronic lung disease have increased risk of unemployment and disability pensioning caused by exacerbations and the complexity of this disease. Multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation could be expected to improve physical performance, work stability and participation.
Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate if a 4 weeks' multidisciplinary vocational pulmonary rehabilitation had an effect on endurance capacity, and whether a change was correlated with degree of physical activity and work participation 1, 6 and 12 months post-rehabilitation.
Method: 128 consecutive patients were included in this intervention prospective cohort study. Endurance capacity was measured as time to exhaustion during constant work load treadmill walk before and after rehabilitation. Data on post-rehabilitation work relations and physical performance was collected by telephone interview.
Results: The endurance capacity increased from 360 sec to 840 sec (median), p=0.001during the 4 weeks of rehabilitation. Increase in treadmill endurance time was correlated with physical activity 6 months (r=0.22, p=0.023), but not 12 months post-rehabilitation (r=0.03, p=0.776). There was no correlation between increase in treadmill endurance and work participation 6 or 12 months after rehabilitation.
Conclusion: Patients experiencing the largest improvement in physical endurance after participation in the current rehabilitation model were most likely to continue their physical activity 6 months after rehabilitation, but the effect was lost after 12 months. The degree of improvement in physical condition did not influence work participation.
- © 2011 ERS