Self-management education in COPD - Key to lower hospital admissions

Main Category: COPD
Article Date: 01 Nov 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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A self-management programme specifically developed for COPD patients, "Living Well with COPD �", involving communication with a trained health professional over a year, has been shown to reduce hospital admissions and emergency room visits.

Although the original study has important connotations, the present follow-up examination was welcome. It was undertaken by the same team, at the Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit (Montreal Chest Institute, McGill University Health Center, Qu�bec, Canada), under the leadership of Jean Bourbeau.

In this study, patients were kept under observation for two years. Most of them were elderly, not highly educated, and had advanced COPD.

The self-management programme included a patient workbook, a written action plan with a customised prescription of antibiotic and prednisone to be used when the patient had exacerbations, and non supervised exercise teaching at home.

Results suggest that the benefit of a reduction on all-cause hospital admissions and emergency room visits is sustained in the long-term. It is the first study that shows beneficial effects of self-management in COPD patients after two-years of follow-up.

These sustained benefits to the health care system could potentially add to patients' quality of life by reducing institutionalisation.

It is well known that COPD exacerbation and hospitalisation are determinants of poor quality of life, and important cost drivers.

Title of the original article:
Self-management reduces both short- and long-term hospitalisation in COPD

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 7,500 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY JOURNAL (ERJ), Vol. 26, No 5
http://erj.ersjournals.com

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