Physical Activity Versus Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COPD

A survey of pulmonary rehabilitation programmes mirrored the results of other UK studies and highlighted that there are not enough programmes available; currently in the UK less than 1.5% of patients with COPD receive pulmonary rehabilitation per year. Only a proportion of patients are targeted i.e. those with moderate to severe disease. The majority of programmes are outpatient-based and are supervised by clinicians. This structured and supervised format of pulmonary rehabilitation does not meet the needs of all patients with high numbers of dropouts and non-adherence; yet alternative options for increasing physical activity for patients with COPD currently do not seem to be offered. A home-based pedometer-driven walking intervention offers an alternative method of delivering physical activity training that could be provided to larger numbers of patients, at a lower cost and with flexibility around life commitments. It would also provide patients with more choice when deciding whether to participate in exercise or physical activity. To date no study has compared a home-based walking intervention to structured, supervised pulmonary rehabilitation or the patient preferences or cost of the two programmes. For this reason, there is a need to compare a home-based-walking intervention to the standard method of providing patients with physical activity training, i.e. pulmonary rehabilitation. Therefore this study is essential as it will assess the feasibility of conducting a trial to investigate the efficacy of a physical activity intervention (physical activity consultation and a pedometer-based walking programme) versus pulmonary rehabilitation in improving physical activity in COPD.