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HOME REHABILITATION WITH UNSUPERVISED EXERCISE IN COPD: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

ABSTRACT

The aim of this systematic review was to verify the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation programs with unsupervised home exercise in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), since the low availability of specialized centers in the country, the high cost and other factors mean that few patients have access to supervised rehabilitation programs. The authors selected eight randomized controlled clinical trials that met the inclusion criteria and reached a minimum score of five points on the PEDro scale, published in the PubMed database up to November 2014. Five of these studies compared a home unsupervised rehabilitation group (URG) with a non-exercise control group (CG) and three studies compared a URG with a supervised rehabilitation group (SRG) as control. The main outcomes measured were: functional capacity, pulmonary function, dyspnea, and quality of life. Based on the analysis it was demonstrated that unsupervised training in the home environment, or in the community, can be an alternative for stable patients with moderate to severe COPD, especially in terms of the benefits related to quality of life and dyspnea; it was not possible to identify any improvement in the other outcomes measured. In addition, it appears that this form of rehabilitation in the treatment of these patients is safe and feasible, but further studies are needed to determine the effects of unsupervised rehabilitation on other outcomes.

Keywords:
physical therapy specialty; respiratory tract diseases; dyspnea; quality of life; exercise

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