Pulmonary Rehabilitation Response in Elderly and Younger Patients With COPD

SESSION TITLE: Pulmonary Rehabilitation SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Poster PRESENTED ON: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM PURPOSE: Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) has been shown to improve exercise capacity, health status, anxiety and depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the response in younger and elderly patients has not been fully established. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of PR in elderly people. METHODS: Patients younger (£65 years) and older (>65 years) with stable COPD underwent an 8 week outpatient PR twice weekly and home exercise training. Dyspnea, incremental shuttle walk distance (ISWT), health status (SGRQ), anxiety and depression (HAD) were assessed before and after PR. A comparison was made between younger and elderly patients. RESULTS: The study group included 109 patients with COPD. There were 52 patients (mean age 58.96±4.63 yrs) in the younger and 57 patients (mean age 73.58±5.75 yrs) in the elderly group. The increase in walking distance in younger patients was 76.86±93.18m (p<0.0001) and 34.64±60.35m (p<0.0001) in the elderly group after the data was compared to the baseline. In the younger group, the decrease in BORG was -0.46±1.50 (p=0.04) whereas it was -0.12±0.96 (p=0.35) among the elderly patients. Although SGRQ, HAD improved significantly after PR in younger patients, the improvement was only ‘total’ score in the elderly. Comparing the mean changes after PR, both age groups showed similar improvements in dyspnea, SGRQ and HAD (p=NS). Only walking distance increased in the younger ages after PR (p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Elderly patients with COPD benefit from PR as much as younger patients and should not be excluded because of age. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Clinicians should not hesitate to refer their elderly patients to Pulmonary Rehabilitation as it is also effective in elderly patients DISCLOSURE: The following authors have nothing to disclose: Alev Gurgun, Pervin Korkmaz Ekren, Funda Elmas Uysal, Hale Karapolat, Senay Tuncel No Product/Research Disclosure Information