A new program for patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) improves their quality of life and reduces rehospitalization.
Researchers report that a COPD management program reduced rates of emergency room visits and hospitalizations, as well as severe symptoms of the disease.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the bronchi and is associated with many cardiovascular diseases. It progresses slowly and becomes disabling, characterized by a gradual decrease in breath. Largely underestimated, it probably affects more than 3.5 million people, or 6 to 8% of the French adult population. Responsible for 3% of deaths in France, COPD could be the 4th cause of death in 2030.
Transition between hospital and home
“When a person with COPD is admitted to hospital, doctors and nurses focus on their immediate problem and not on the chronicity of the disease and their general health, so the chances of them having another push and ends up in the hospital again remain high,” says Dr. Hanan Aboumatar, research director and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “About half of these patients will return to hospital within six months,” he adds.
The program focused on the transition from hospital to home. Concretely, a nurse specialized in COPD helped the patient and his usual carer. Following hospitalization, the nurse continued to consult with the patient and caregiver, an average of 6.1 times over the three months following hospitalization, via phone calls or home visits.
A new three-month program
The 240 patients in the cohort were randomly assigned to receive either conventional care or the new three-month program. The average age of the patients in the control group and the intervention group was 63.9 years and 66 years. Participants in both groups had suffered from COPD for an average of three years. Patient hospitalizations and emergency department visits, as well as their quality of life, were tracked for six months from initial hospitalization.
During this period, there were 15 deaths and 337 hospitalizations. The number of COPD-related cares – hospitalization or emergency department visits – per participant was 1.4 in the control group and 0.72 among those enrolled in the new program, a marked improvement. In addition, the quality of life – measured by means of the “qSt-George’s Hospital Respiratory Questionnaire– also performed better in the intervention group.
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