PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ingrid Elise Sundfør
AU  - Kristin Heggdal
TI  - Daily activity habits, energy conservation methods and activity training for patients with COPD. A qualitative study
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p3658
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p3658.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p3658.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Background: COPD patients commonly have symptoms like dyspnea and fatigue that affect their occupational performance and activities of daily living (ADL), but there are few studies on how their activity performance can be supported in Pulmonary Rehabilitation.Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore COPD patients' experience of habits when performing activities of daily life, and how training on daily life activities (ADL training/activity training) during pulmonary rehabilitation had been useful for energy conservation and coping.Method: A qualitative research design was chosen. Four women and two men (age 55 to 75) were interviewed 4 to 6 months after a 4 weeks inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation program. The interviews were analyzed by means of phenomenological method and Systematic Text Condensation (STC) as described by Malterud (2003).Result: Findings are summarized in four categories. 1) How the participants experience the managing of their daily life activities. 2) Changing of habits when performing activities. 3) The experience with ADL-training carried out under guidance of an occupational therapist. 4) Contextual factors that influenced the participant's ability to cope.Conclusion: People with COPD experience the change of habits, in performing daily life activities, as a process. ADL-training, in which the body is used as the primary source of knowledge, can be useful if the patient is in a stage of his/her health promoting process where he or she is motivated for changing and learning new habits in daily life.