Improving rehabilitation for people living with COPD and frailty
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving pulmonary rehabilitation services for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who are living with frailty: an interview study
IRAS ID
248541
Contact name
Matthew Maddocks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
The best approach to help people manage their COPD includes providing a group exercise and education programme called pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). PR can reduce how breathless people are, improve their ability to exercise, and improve their psychological health and quality of life.
Unfortunately, not every person with COPD is able to complete and benefit from PR. In past research, we showed that about 1 in 4 people coming to PR services are ‘frail’ (for example, they walk slowly, have weak muscles, and struggle with day-to-day tasks). These people have a particularly difficult time completing PR. They are less than half as likely to complete a programme compared with those who are not frail.
As such, there is a need to develop PR services that better serve the needs of people with COPD and frailty. We aim to explore the healthcare priorities and experiences of people with COPD and frailty referred for pulmonary rehabilitation, in order to develop a new ‘frailty fit’ PR service.
To do this, we will conduct semi-structured interview study with a purposive sample of people with COPD and frailty who have been referred for PR. This will include people with different ages, living status, levels of frailty, and levels of completion of PR (ie. people who do not start, do not complete, and complete PR). Interviews will follow a semi-structured topic guide exploring the experiences and preferences of people with COPD and frailty; their motivation and goals for, and barriers to, participation in PR; and wider areas of unmet medical, psychological, functional and social needs.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1197
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion