Effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programs on persistent asthma.

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves symptoms and quality of life of patients with chronic respiratory diseases; however, its effectiveness in asthmatic patients is a matter of debate. <b>Methods:</b> It was carried out a retrospective assessment of a 3-week PR program in asthmatic patients. PR included endurance and strength training (12 sessions), breathing exercises when needed; educational activities (3 meetings with HCWs focused on their respiratory disease, smoking quitting, nutritional counseling, drugs, and asthma action plan); psychological support. 6-minute walking distance (6MWD), Borg Dyspnea and Fatigue (BD, BF), and Quality of life (EuroQoL) were recorded before and after the implementation of the PR program. <b>Results:</b> We studied 51 asthmatic patients followed-up in an Italian PR Department between March and October 2017. The median (IQR) age was 62 (49-72) yrs, 15 (29.4%) were male, 34 and 10 were never and former smoker, respectively, mean (SD) FEV1/FVC was 0.7 (0.1), mean (SD) FEV1 was 86 (27.6)%; the majority were Gina steps 2 and 3. PR improved 6MWD (P &lt;0.0001), BD (P= 0.003), and EuroQoL (P &lt;0.0001). No statistically significant differences were found before and after PR following GINA stratification, with the only exception of EuroQoL which was different between groups 3 and 4. PR improved 6MWD (P= 0.01) and EurQoL (P= 0.001) in class 3, and 6MWD(P= 0.001), BD (P= 0.005), and EurQoL (P= 0.002) in the class 4. <b>Conclusions:</b> Multidisciplinary PR program was associated with improved exercise performance and quality of life in persistent asthmatic patients.