Telerehabilitation Approaches in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Patients

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a first-line management strategy in chronic obstructive pulmonary patients (COPD) as it reduces shortness of breath, increases exercise capacity, and improves health-related quality of life. However, 8-50% of patients referred to PR do not participate at all, while 10-32% of those who start do not complete the program. Barriers to participation and completion include difficulty in accessing the program, poor mobility, lack of transport, and travel costs. Telerehabilitation is defined as the provision of rehabilitation services through telecommunication technology, including telephone, internet and video conference communications between the patient and the healthcare provider. Different technologies (from phone to video conferencing) have been tested in patients with COPD to enhance daily activities, exercise training and walking prescription. All of them showed positive effects on exercise tolerance, dyspnea, physical activity and quality of life. However, there is no study about which telerehabilitation program is more effective on COPD patients. The aim of this study is to investigate which telerehabilitation approach is more effective in COPD.