PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mats Arne
AU  - Margareta Emtner
AU  - Karin Lisspers
AU  - Karin Wadell
AU  - Bjorn Stallberg
TI  - Availability of pulmonary rehabilitation in primary care for patients with COPD in Sweden
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P1462
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1462.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1462.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - Introduction:Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an important, evidence-based component of the management of COPD including exercise training. The majority of patients with COPD are treated in primary care. In a recent study in Sweden, only 10% of COPD patients in primary care stated they had had contact with a physiotherapist last year.Aim:To investigate the availability of rehabilitation resources in primary care for COPD patients in Sweden.Method:A cross-sectional descriptive design, based on a web-based questionnaire sent to the managers of all 683 primary care centres in 12 regions corresponding to half of the 9.5 million inhabitants in Sweden. The survey included questions about availability of rehabilitation resources for COPD patients. PR was defined as exercise training and at least one of the following activities: education, nutritional intervention, energy conservation techniques or psychosocial support.Results:A total of 381 centres (56%) responded. A non-responder telephone survey showed no differences in answers compared to responders. Availability of health professionals for rehabilitation in primary care was: physiotherapists 92%, occupational therapists 92%, dieticians 84% and social workers/psychologists 98%.Forty-nine percent of the centres stated their COPD patients had access to PR.Conclusions:Availability of health professionals for PR in primary care in Sweden was high. Nevertheless only about half of the centres stated that their patients with COPD had access to PR in primary care and overall few patients had contact with physiotherapist according to another recent study. This indicates a need for awareness and restructuring of available resources for PR in primary care.