Need of help for activities of daily living in patients with mild to severe COPD: Who helps, with what and how much?

Abstract

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) impairs patients’ activity of daily living (ADL) and increases dependence on help from others; home care service, private household service, relatives, friends and neighbors. Aim: To describe the magnitude of the need for help in terms of who provides the help, how much time is used on help and help to which ADLs. Methods: One hundred patients (n=100) living with COPD as their primary diagnosis, living in ordinary housing, in the age of 50+ participated in this descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey addressing the need for help and assistance. Results: Baseline characteristics: 36% male, 64% female, mean age 71 years old (±10), mean FEV1% 69 (±14), 42% lived alone. ADL-I demonstrated that patients indicated need of help for cleaning (70%); home maintenance (36%); personal care (33%), of those 12% for bathing and 7% for getting dressed; shopping (31%) and laundry (14%). Patients received help from relatives (52%), private housekeeping (26%) and home care service (22%). The help from relatives was the most prevalent help on a daily basis: 21.3% of patients received help once or several times per day, whereas home service primarily was provided every fortnight (24%). Conclusion: In COPD even patients with mild lung function are dependent on and need help for daily activities. Help from relatives should not be underestimated, since they are the main caregivers. Yet, this is critical as almost half of this population live alone.