Abstract
Patient education is a core component of comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients with COPD (Nici et al. AJRCCM 2006). Indeed, an individualized educational program should be based on addressing disease-related knowledge deficits of COPD patients. To date, limited data are available on these deficits in COPD patients entering PR. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate disease-related knowledge of COPD patients entering PR.
Methods: 311 patients with COPD (172 male, mean (SD) age 63 (9) yrs, FEV1 49 (20)% pred, BMI 26 (6) kg/m2) responded to 50 statements about pulmonary and extra-pulmonary features of COPD (“true”, “false” or “I do not know”).
Results: In general, patients had limited knowledge about their disease (table 1). Some examples: 1/3 of the patients did not know what the abbreviation “COPD” stands for; a minority knew the meaning of “an exacerbation”; a majority believed that PR has a positive effect on pulmonary function; 1/3 thought that too much physical exercise could overload the lungs; 1/3 considered swollen ankles and chest pain as typical symptoms of patients with COPD; 1/5 believed that “self-management” means that no doctor should be visited.
Conclusion: Patients with COPD entering PR have a heterogeneous level of knowledge considering COPD. Therefore, individualized educational programs should be considered to increase patients' knowledge and, in turn, improve self-management.
- © 2011 ERS