Beneficial Effects of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease marked by progressive lung scarring leading to multiple life-altering sequelae. The over-arching goals of the principal investigator's research program are to more fully characterize these sequelae and to examine interventions that might improve them. The hypotheses of this particular study are that pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is one such intervention, and that PR will improve the sequelae of dyspnea and impairments in functional capacity, cognition, mood and anxiety, fatigue, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with IPF.