A nationwide online questionnaire survey of the understanding and implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation at all levels of medical institutions in China in 2017

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the implementation and understanding of pulmonary rehabilitation in medical personnel at all levels of medical institutions nationwide. Methods: We used WeChat and e-channels to disseminate e-questionnaires including personal basic information and the implementation of hospital pulmonary rehabilitation (including the setting up of hospital rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation-related treatment, and the composition of pulmonary rehabilitation teams), and awareness of pulmonary rehabilitation (including doctors' understanding of lung rehabilitation status, pathways, prospects, and obstacle factors). Finally, the analysis of the data was performed using SPSS 20.0 for statistical analysis. The frequency distribution and composition ratio were used to describe the distribution of each question item. Comparison among groups according to the unit level of the respondents was performed by chi-square test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 921 medical staff from all over the country completed the survey, covering the entire country including Taiwan Province and a total of 32 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. 88.1% of medical personnel reported that their hospitals had rehabilitation departments, the difference being statistically significant (P=0.001). Doctors could understand that the most important ways of pulmonary rehabilitation knowledge were the following: expert lectures (559, 60.69%), professional literature (541, 58.74%), professional books (442, 47.99%), pulmonary rehabilitation conference (392, 42.56%), the difference being statistically significant (all P<0.05).Among the factors that impeded the implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation, the top four were lack of talent (690, 74.92%), lack of education (645, 70.03%), lack of policy support (603, 65.47%), and lack of related equipments (578, 62.76%). Conclusions: The lower the level of the hospitals, the poor the implementation and cognitive status of pulmonary rehabilitation. Promoting the training of pulmonary rehabilitation personnel and strengthening the academic exchange of pulmonary rehabilitation were good ways to strengthen the implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation and improve the understanding of pulmonary rehabilitation.