Impact of Pulmonary Rehabilitation on Loneliness in COPD

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), composed of exercise training, education, and self-management strategies, is the standard of care for managing individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). PR improves dyspnea, functional exercise capacity, health-related quality of life and decreases hospitalizations and mortality. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce loneliness in older adults and those with chronic conditions, in association with a reduction in pain, the development of friendly relationships and enhanced psychological well-being. However, there is limited information regarding the impact of PR on the level of loneliness in individuals with COPD. Study Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of PR on loneliness levels in individuals with COPD and to examine the relationship between changes in loneliness and changes in exercise capacity, health-related quality of life, depression, and anxiety levels. This pre-post interventional study will be conducted at the West Park Healthcare Centre and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Ethics approval will be obtained from the Joint West Park Healthcare Centre - The Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre Research Ethics Board (JREB) and the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (HiREB). Participants Based on Mimi et al. (2014), a sample size of 45 participants is required to detect minimal significant effects on the University of California \& Los-Angeles Loneliness scale (UCLA-LS), with 80% power (α= 0.05, β= 0.20) and assuming a drop-out rate of 25%. The sample will include male and female individuals who have been diagnosed with COPD.