Pulmonary Rehabilitation During Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: a Mixed-methods Approach

NCT ID: NCT03751670

Last Updated: 2023-03-08

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

50 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2018-09-01

Study Completion Date

2024-01-31

Brief Summary

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This study aims to i) assess the short-, mid- and long-term effectiveness of a patient-centred community-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programme during during acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD); ii) establish the minimal clinical important differences for PR in AECOPD for clinical and patient-reported outcome measures; and iii) evaluate patients' perspectives and self-reported impact of the PR programme.

Patients with AECOPD will be recruited via clinicians at hospitals and primary care centres. Sociodemographic, anthropometric and clinical data; vital signs and peripheral oxygen saturation; symptoms (dyspnoea, fatigue, cough and sputum); lung function; physical activity level; peripheral muscle strength; functional status; exercise tolerance; impact of the disease and health-related quality of life will be collected within 24h-48h of the AECOPD diagnosis. Then, patients will be randomly allocated to either conventional treatment or conventional treatment plus PR. After 3 weeks, all outcome measures will be reassessed. Additionally, follow-ups at 2, 6 and 12 months will be performed through phone calls to assess the number of recurrent AECOPD, healthcare utilization and mortality.

Conventional treatment will consist on daily medical treatment prescribed by the physician (i.e., medication).

Community-based PR will involve 6 sessions (2 times per week) of breathing retraining and airway clearance techniques, exercises for thoracic mobility, expansion and flexibility, cardiorespiratory exercise training, education and psychosocial support.

It is expected that, by including PR in the treatment of patients with AECOPD, they will express greater improvements in a shorter period of time and experience a decrease number of re-exacerbations and healthcare utilization.

Detailed Description

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Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) negatively impact on patients' health status and disease progression, and increase patients' susceptibility to exacerbations, hospitalizations and death. Therefore, the treatment goals for patients with AECOPD are to minimize the negative impact of these events and prevent their recurrence.

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the comprehensive intervention presenting the most well-established benefits in patients with stable COPD, thus, it would seem reasonable to consider PR as a management strategy for AECOPD. However, studies assessing PR role during AECOPD have shown conflicting results.

Therefore, the main aim of this project is to assess the short-, mid- and long-term effectiveness of a patient-centered community-based PR programme during AECOPD. Secondarily, we aim to develop and implement a community-based PR programme for patients with AECOPD, specifically tailored to their self-reported and clinical needs; establish the minimal clinical important differences for PR in AECOPD for clinical and patient-reported outcome measures; and evaluate patients' perspectives and self-reported impact of the PR programme.

A pilot study was performed between November 2016 and December 2017 to allow sample size calculation and adjustments to the protocol of the randomized controlled trial. Based on this pilot study, a sample size estimation was performed for the COPD Assessment Test to detect a moderate effect size (f=0.30), with 80% power, 5% significance level and moderate correlation among repeated measures (r=0.25). The minimum sample size estimation was 36 participants. However, as in respiratory interventions dropout rates are around 30-35%, a total of 50 participants with AECOPD will be needed.

The plan is to recruit approximately 50 voluntary patients with AECOPD via clinicians at hospitals and primary care centres. This study will enroll adult patients diagnosed with AECOPD according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria.

Patients will be recruited via the clinicians, who will provide a brief explanation about the study and inform the researcher about interested participants. Then, the researcher will contact interested participants and provide further information about the study, clarify any doubts and collect the inform consents. Patients will be eligible if they are: i) diagnosed with AECOPD according to the GOLD criteria; ii) included within 24-48h of the diagnostic; and iii) able to provide informed consent. Exclusion criteria will include: i) need for hospitalization; ii) other coexisting chronic respiratory diseases; iii) unstable cardiovascular disease; iv) musculoskeletal or neuromuscular conditions that preclude the performance of the assessments and/or treatment sessions; v) signs of cognitive impairment; vi) current neoplasia or immunological disease and vii) any therapeutic intervention in addition to standard of care.

Patients who agree to participate will be randomly allocated to the conventional treatment group (control group) or the conventional treatment plus PR group (experimental group).

Baseline data will be collected within the first 24-48 hours of the diagnosis of AECOPD. The researcher will collect sociodemographic, anthropometric and clinical data (e.g., number of exacerbations in the previous year); vital signs and peripheral oxygen saturation; symptoms (dyspnoea, fatigue, cough and sputum); lung function (spirometry); physical activity level; peripheral muscle strength (handgrip and hand-held dynamometer); functional status; exercise tolerance; impact of the disease and health-related quality of life.

Patients in the control group will receive daily medical treatment prescribed by the physician (i.e., medication).

Patients in the experimental group will receive daily medical treatment plus a community-based PR programme that will involve 6 sessions (2 times per week). The PR programme will consist of breathing retraining and airway clearance techniques, exercises for thoracic mobility, expansion and flexibility, cardiorespiratory exercise training, education and psychosocial support. This programme will be adjusted to each individual needs. After this period all measurements will be repeated. Furthermore, vital signs, peripheral oxygen saturation, dyspnoea and fatigue will also be collected before/during/after each session to monitor the intervention. Sessions will be conducted in properly equipped rooms or at patients' home and will last approximately 60 minutes.

Additionally, after 2, 6 and 12 months, the researcher will contact all participants via phone calls to collect data about the number of recurrent AECOPD, healthcare utilization (e.g., unscheduled visits, hospitalizations) and mortality.

Data analysis will be undertaken using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software and will include descriptive and inferential statistics. To analyse changes in outcome measures, data from baseline and after treatment assessments will be compare. Moreover, between group comparisons will also be performed for baseline, after intervention and follow-ups assessments. Effect sizes for the interventions will also be calculated.

Conditions

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Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Participants are assigned to one of two groups in parallel for the duration of the study.
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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PR+conventional treatment

Patients will be treated with daily medication prescribed by the physician. Additionally, patients will receive 6 sessions (2 times a week during 3 weeks) of Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR). PR will include breathing retraining and airway clearance techniques, exercises for thoracic mobility, expansion and flexibility, cardiorespiratory exercise training, education and psychosocial support.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Intervention Type OTHER

Pulmonary Rehabilitation programmes will include breathing retraining and airway clearance techniques, exercises for thoracic mobility, muscle strength, cardiorespiratory exercise training, education and psychosocial support.

Daily medical treatment

Intervention Type DRUG

Patients will be treated with daily medication prescribed by the physician.

Conventional treatment

Patients will be treated with daily medication prescribed by the physician.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Daily medical treatment

Intervention Type DRUG

Patients will be treated with daily medication prescribed by the physician.

Interventions

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Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary Rehabilitation programmes will include breathing retraining and airway clearance techniques, exercises for thoracic mobility, muscle strength, cardiorespiratory exercise training, education and psychosocial support.

Intervention Type OTHER

Daily medical treatment

Patients will be treated with daily medication prescribed by the physician.

Intervention Type DRUG

Other Intervention Names

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Medication

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* clinical diagnosis of AECOPD according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria (i.e., an episode of acute worsening of respiratory symptoms that result in additional therapy);
* included within 24-48h of the diagnostic;
* able to provide their own informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria

* need for hospitalization;
* other coexisting chronic respiratory diseases;
* unstable cardiovascular disease;
* presence of musculoskeletal or neuromuscular conditions that preclude the performance of any of the assessments or the participation in the treatment sessions;
* signs of cognitive impairment;
* current neoplasia or immunological disease;
* any therapeutic intervention in addition to standard of care.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Aveiro University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Alda Sofia Pires de Dias Marques

Senior Lecturer

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Alda S. Marques, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

School of Health Sciences of the University of Aveiro (ESSUA)

Locations

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University of Aveiro

Aveiro, , Portugal

Site Status

Countries

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Portugal

References

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Oliveira A, Machado A, Marques A. Minimal Important and Detectable Differences of Respiratory Measures in Outpatients with AECOPDdagger. COPD. 2018 Oct;15(5):479-488. doi: 10.1080/15412555.2018.1537366. Epub 2018 Dec 4.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 30512981 (View on PubMed)

Oliveira A, Marques A. Understanding symptoms variability in outpatients with AECOPD. Pulmonology. 2018 Nov-Dec;24(6):357-360. doi: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2018.09.007. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 30554671 (View on PubMed)

Oliveira A, Afreixo V, Marques A. Enhancing our understanding of the time course of acute exacerbations of COPD managed on an outpatient basis. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2018 Nov 20;13:3759-3766. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S175890. eCollection 2018.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 30538438 (View on PubMed)

Oliveira AL, Marques AS. Outcome Measures Used in Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review. Phys Ther. 2018 Mar 1;98(3):191-204. doi: 10.1093/ptj/pzx122.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29228288 (View on PubMed)

Oliveira A, Marques A. Exploratory mixed methods study of respiratory physiotherapy for patients with lower respiratory tract infections. Physiotherapy. 2016 Mar;102(1):111-8. doi: 10.1016/j.physio.2015.03.3723. Epub 2015 May 14.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26067286 (View on PubMed)

Oliveira A, Pinho C, Marques A. Effects of a respiratory physiotherapy session in patients with LRTI: a pre/post-test study. Clin Respir J. 2017 Nov;11(6):703-712. doi: 10.1111/crj.12402. Epub 2015 Nov 5.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26471240 (View on PubMed)

Machado A, Oliveira A, Valente C, Burtin C, Marques A (2018) "Community-based pulmonary rehabilitation during acute exacerbations of COPD" European Respiratory Journal

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Machado A, Silva P, Marques A (2018) "Design of pulmonary rehabilitation during acute exacerbations of COPD". European Respiratory Journal

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Oliveira A, Rebelo P, Andrade L, Valente C, Marques A (2018) "Computerised respiratory sounds during acute exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease". Proceedings of the 4th IPLeiria's International Health Congress. BMC Health Services Research 2018, 18(Suppl 2): O23 pp 13

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Machado A, Oliveira A, Paixão C, Miranda S, Melro H, Ferreira D, Marques A (2017) "Pulmonary rehabilitation effects on computerized respiratory sounds of patients with AECOPD" Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the International Lung Sound Association, 182:57

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Machado A, Oliveira A, Valente C, Burtin C, Marques A. Effects of a community-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme during acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - A quasi-experimental pilot study. Pulmonology. 2020 Jan-Feb;26(1):27-38. doi: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2019.05.004. Epub 2019 Jun 1.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31164288 (View on PubMed)

Machado A, Oliveira A, Valente C, Burtin C, Marques A. Effects of a community-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme during acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - A quasi-experimental pilot study. Authors' reply. Pulmonology. 2020 Mar-Apr;26(2):112-113. doi: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2019.09.001. Epub 2019 Oct 8. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31601490 (View on PubMed)

Machado A, Dias C, Paixao C, Goncalves AP, Burtin C, Marques A. Short-term effects of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation during outpatient-managed exacerbations of COPD: a randomised controlled trial. Thorax. 2025 Mar 18;80(4):218-226. doi: 10.1136/thorax-2024-221760.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 39689939 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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SFRH/BD/147200/2019

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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