Interventions to Improve the Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Global Mapping During 1990-2018.

Giap Van Vu,Hai Quang Pham,Roger C M Ho,Bach Xuan Tran,Carl A Latkin,Cyrus S H Ho,Cuong Tat Nguyen,Giang Thu Vu,Giang Hai Ha

doi:10.3390/ijerph17093089

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been considered a significant health challenge globally in recent years, which affects different aspects of the quality-of-life (QoL). A review was conducted of research output, research topics, and landscape to have a global view of the papers mentioning the interventions to increase QoL of patients with COPD. A total of 3242 research items from Web of Science during the period 1990–2018 were downloaded and analyzed. Analyses based on the different levels of data and methods using using VOSviewer software tool (version 1.16.15, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands) and Latent Dirichlet allocation. By exploring the trends in research productivity and topics, an increase was found in the number of papers mentioning non-pharmacological interventions as well as mental health illness and QoL among patients with COPD. In conclusion, the research on the interventions to increase the QoL of patients with COPD has attracted scientists globally. It is suggested that more research should be conducted on the effectiveness of non-pharmacological therapies to increase QoL of patients with COPD that can be applied broadly in the community. The collaboration and support from developed countries to developing countries are needed to increase the QoL of people living with COPD.

Highlights

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the chronic airway diseases, which characterized by the limitation in airflow and not fully reversible [1]
There has been a gradual raise in the annual number of papers on intervention to improve the QoL of patients with COPD within the period 1991–2018, contributing to a total of 3242 papers
This study investigated the global trend of 3242 research publications regarding interventions to increase QoL of patients with COPD

Summary

Introduction

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the chronic airway diseases, which characterized by the limitation in airflow and not fully reversible [1]. The reported prevalence of COPD is different among regions: 4% in Europe [2], 6.3% in the Asia Pacific region [3], from less than 4% to over 9% [4] in the US and predicted, with limited epidemiological evidence, to be at about 11% in 2010 in the African region [5,6] This chronic disease has significant adverse effects on physical and mental conditions of those patients [7,8,9], as other systems and organs other than the lungs suffered the negative impacts, leading to pneumonia [10], pulmonary hypertension [11], and cardiovascular disease (CVD) [12].

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