CAT and pulmonary rehabilitation: Where is the gain?

Abstract

Introduction: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) plays an important part on the quality of life of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) questionnaire is validated to respond positively on quality of life after PR. The goal of the study is to explore on which domain (question) of the CAT questionnaire will PR have an significant impact. Methods: CAT questionnaire has been administered to 72 patients (41 women aged 68 +/- 6 yrs ; 31 men aged 60 yrs +/- 8 yrs) with COPD (FEV1 predicted average 54.93% +/- 16.92%) who completed a 8 week PR program. The components of the CAT questionnaire were analysed pre and post PR. Results: The mean CAT score before PR was 18.65 points, with a clinically significant change of – 3.07 points after PR. Significant changes were found for question 4 (P Conclusion: Results confirmed the hypothesis of a significant improvement on CAT questions 4, 5, 6, and 8 after PR. These domains are partly related to daily activities and exercise tolerance. This study confirms the positive impact of PR on patient9s confidence with physical activity and anxiety. Long term modifications of these scores would be of interest.