Walk On! Physical Activity Coaching

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of the death in the US. The personal, social and economic costs of the disease are tremendous, with annual expenditures of nearly $50 billion, mostly from hospitalizations for exacerbations of COPD and associated sequelae. For the vast majority of patients, despite optimal pharmacological therapy, living with COPD is characterized by unrelieved dyspnea, physical inactivity, deconditioning, and an insidious downward spiral of social isolation and depression that has a profound impact on the lives of patients and their caregivers. There is mounting evidence that physical inactivity is significantly associated with more frequent hospitalizations and increased mortality in COPD even after adjusting for disease severity. While practice guidelines recommend regular physical activity for all patients with COPD, health systems are challenged in operationalizing an effective and sustainable approach to assist patients in being physically active. The investigators propose a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of a 12-month physical activity coaching intervention (Walk On!) compared to standard care for 1,650 COPD patients from a large integrated health care system.