BACKGROUND: Obstructive pulmonary diseases may interfere negatively with patients' quality of life (QOL). Specific QOL questionnaires such as the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) have been used to quantify the impact of the disease and measure the effects of different rehabilitation protocols. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation performed once a week in association with exercises at home among patients with obstructive pulmonary disease, by means of CRQ comparisons, maximum respiratory pressures (MIP and MEP) and six-minute walking distance test (6MWD), before and after treatment. METHODS: This study was developed in the physical therapy outpatient clinic of the hospital. Thirty-four patients of both sexes with obstructive pulmonary disease were evaluated, and nineteen (mean age: 60.8 ± 14.2 years) were included in the study. These subjects all underwent physiotherapeutic evaluation and reevaluation with the CRQ and measurements of MIP, MEP and 6MWD. The physical therapy consisted of respiratory, aerobic and resistance exercises once a week for 12 weeks, together with home exercises twice a week. RESULTS: The Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation were used. Statistically significant differences between evaluations before and after rehabilitation were found for all CRQ domains (p< 0.05), MIP (p= 0.01) and MEP (p= 0.002). CONCLUSION: The proposed program improved QOL and promoted increases in maximum respiratory pressures among these patients with obstructive pulmonary disease, even though the current literature suggests that higher frequency of training is needed.
quality of life; COPD; asthma
