Impact of Education on COPD Patients in Pulmonary Rehabilitation - Assignment Example

? Impact of Education on COPD Patients in Pulmonary Rehabilitation Introduction Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic illness of the lungs that comprises the irreversible obstruction of airflow (Murphy et al., 2011). COPD results to about 275 million deaths annually (Ninot et al., 2011; Bentsen, Wentzel, Henriksen, Rokne & Wahl, 2010). However, COPD is manageable through Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) that involves multidisciplinary and comprehensive intervention using exercise and education components (Wilson, O’Neill, Reilly, MacMahon & Bradley, 2007). An education component is very fundamental for both patients and health professionals in addressing COPD. This review focuses on the impact of education on COPD patients as used in PR program. Methods The search engines used include Medline, Bio Med Central, and Pub Med for recent peer-reviewed journal articles. Results Ninot et al. (2011) examined the effectiveness of outcomes of eight exercise sessions integrated in a one-month self-management education program for COPD patients in enhancing health outcomes and decreasing direct medical expenses after a year, in comparison to usual patient care. A randomized controlled trial that recruited 38 patients with stable moderate to severe COPD applied to either a usual care group, or a self-management group. There was monitoring of several educational topics in about six-minute walking distance (6MWD) to assess the outcome. The study findings indicated that there was a significant statistical difference between the intervention group and the usual care patients in favor of the intervention after one year including the 6MWT and the medication cost for every patient per year. Additionally, the intervention group improved in other aspects compared to the usual care group such as emotional reaction, and in two energy domains of Nottingham Heath Profile (NHP). The study findings therefore, show that a combination of self-care management education with supervised exercise decreases COPD medical costs leads to improved exercise tolerance and HRQoL, compared to usual care (Ninot et al. 2011). Another study sought to establish the impact of the educational sessions (ES) in COPD patients recruited in a PR (Crisafulli et al., 2010). The study involved short time observation with the application of six ES. An ESQ questionnaire assessed the learning outcome. Out of 285 patients, 226 (completers) completed the ESQ, while 59 (control) did not. The study findings indicate the completers as the only group to experience a significant increase in ESQ total and partial scores (P Read More