The Effect of Lung Rehabilitation at Home and Hospital on the Distance Traveled in 6 Minutes in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background and Objective: Regarding high prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and the effect of rehabilitation techniques on improving the clinical status of these patients, the rehabilitation programs are not well considered in hospitals. So, the present study was designed to compare the effect of lung rehabilitation on the improvement of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease via distance traveled in 6 minutes in hospital versus home. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study 60 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who had referred to Pulmonary Clinic of Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, were studied. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 30. The lung rehabilitation program was performed for 8 weeks. The rehabilitation team carried out exercises at the rehabilitation center of the hospital and the exercises at home without a direct supervision. In the pre and post tests, the distance traveled in a 6-minute walk was measured. The data were analyzed by the SPSS software using an independent t-test, the paired t-test and the Chi-square test. Results: The rehabilitation program in both groups increased the distance traveled in 6 minutes (P <0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the home rehabilitation program increased the distance traveled in 6 minutes in the same way as the rehabilitation program in the hospital. As a result, home rehabilitation exercises may have potentiality to replace the hospital rehabilitation program.