Home-based pulmonary rehab exercise programs are less effective than supervised outpatient programs for COPD patients, a study from the UK has shown.
While producing some perceived benefit for patients, home-based exercise fell short in the primary outcome of exercise capacity.
The findings come from a study involving 154 patients with COPD who did an 8-week home-based exercise program or a supervised pulmonary rehab organised along the standard outpatient model in settings such as gyms and community halls.
The home-based pulmonary rehab was a structured programme with weekly telephone follow-up that included individually tailored exercise at least 3 days per week, as well as educational material. Aerobic exercise such as walking was encouraged along with upper and lower limb resistance training.
On completion of the program, both groups achieved significant improvements in exercise capacity, but the home-based group had smaller increases (59m vs 29m incremental shuttle walk distance).
More than half (54%) of the standard outpatient rehab group achieved the minimum clinically important difference of the exercise capacity, compared with 34% in the home-based group.