Physical Activity Following Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COPD

Evidence suggests that physical activity is not maintained following pulmonary rehabilitation for individuals with COPD. Peer social support, feedback about physical progression and recognition of opportunities to stay active following pulmonary rehabilitation have been identified as facilitators to physical activity following pulmonary rehabilitation. The proposed feasibility study has incorporated these factors into the intervention. This is a mixed-methods study including a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial and a qualitative process evaluation. Clusters will be pulmonary rehabilitation programmes across Lincolnshire Community Health Services, NHS Trust (n=8), randomly allocated to the Intervention or Control. Patients in the Intervention group will receive a multi component intervention following pulmonary rehabilitation (pedometer, step diary and WhatsApp) and patients in the Control group will receive standard care following pulmonary rehabilitation. The primary objective is to identify and report the acceptability of the intervention for patients. The secondary objectives are to: 1) gather information on recruitment and consent rates of patients who are eligible and willing to participate, and to monitor retention of participants throughout the study; 2) understand the patients' and health care professionals' experience and views of the intervention and research procedures; 3) identify and report intervention fidelity throughout the study; 4) provide an estimate of likely changes in the proposed primary outcome for the full randomised controlled trial (average daily step count at 52 weeks following pulmonary rehabilitation) and other secondary health outcomes; 5) obtain the necessary statistical parameters to inform sample size calculations in a future definitive cluster randomised controlled trial. The results from the feasibility study will inform the design of a definitive trial, including whether the specific intervention has the potential to promote physical activity.