THE EFFECTS OF AN EXERCISE-ONLY INTERVENTION ON EXERCISE ENDURANCE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

Abstract

512 The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between improvement in disease-specific and general health-related quality of life (HRQL) and improvement in exercise endurance in COPD patients after participating in an exercise-only intervention rather than a multi-interventional PRP. One-hundred fifty-one subjects with COPD (age = 67.5 yrs; FEVI = 1.57 I: FEVI = 57.8% of predicted) completed a six-minute walk, a symptom-limited treadmill (TM) exercise test, and disease-specific and general HRQL assessments before and after a three month intervention consisting only of supervised walking and upper body strengthening exercises. After training, TM time increased .5 min (p = .0001) and 6-min walk distance increased 199.6 feet (p = .0001). All subscales of the Chronic Respiratory Index Questionnaire (CRQ). a disease-specific HRQL measure, improved significantly (1 to 7 scale): dyspnea (.62, p = .0001): fatigue (.51. p = .0001); emotional function (.15. p = .0037); mastery (.20. p = .0004). In addition, self-reported physical function, a general HRQL measure, improved significantly (0 to 100 scale: 7.23, p = .0001). Improvement in TM time and improvement in 6-min walk distance were not significantly correlated with improvement in any of the HRQL measures (r ranging from .097 to −.011, p > .05). These results confirm the findings of previous research that improvements in HRQL in subjects with COPD are not associated with improvements in exercise endurance. In addition, the results of this investigation suggest that exercise training by itself has a positive effect on HRQL that is independent of the effects of other components of contemporary PRP such as breathing retraining or self-assessment and symptom management training. Supported by NIH grant HL53755.