Effectiveness of Institutional Versus Implementation of Standard Pulmonary Rehabilitation Module in Bhopal Gas Exposed having COPD

Ruma Galgalekar

Abstract

Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is beneficial treatment to decrease symptoms, increase participation and to reduce health costs for COPD patients for improving health quality. Our study compared the impact of pulmonary rehabilitation of gas exposed surviving COPD patients in ameliorating their health status in two operational settings i.e. supervised institutional and unsupervised home based.   The study sample used for PR was 180 gas exposed COPD subjects in age 40-75 yrs. of both gender, satisfying the inclusion. Before starting PR program, a 6 Minute Walk Test (MWT), SGRQ score and PFT was done and the same was assessed every 6 months interval. PR program for 1 hr consisted of breathing exercise, pursed lip breathing, huffing and coughing, diaphragmatic and incentive spirometry technique, active range of movements of all upper and lower limb joints and postural drainage.