Daily physical activity in COPD.

Rationale:

Despite the high prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) there is a striking lack of information about the daily physical activity (DPA) level of COPD patients in various stages of their disease. Even less is known about the predicting factors of DPA. It’s not known if mainly physical or psychological factors predict DPA level of COPD patients and if there are differences between the various GOLD stages. Also little is known about its consequences for quality of life. Such information is vital for designing successful prevention and management programs that target the reduced DPA level leading to reduced fitness, depression and social isolation which are characteristic for COPD.


Objective:
To assess in the 4 GOLD stages of COPD:

1) performance based DPA status with respect to the level, types and intensity of DPA

2) physical predictors for DPA status

3) psychological predictors for DPA status

4) the relationship between DPA status and health related quality of life


Study design:
observational study without intervention


Study population:
120 representative COPD patients equally distributed over the four GOLD stages.

Daily physical activity level declines gradually with higher GOLD stages, but declines relatively sharply after reaching GOLD stage 4. Psychosocial factors contribute importantly to the variability of daily physical activity level in GOLD 1, 2 & 3. In GOLD stage 4 the reciprocal interaction between physical disability and psychosocial factors is particularly responsible for the variability in the level of daily physical activity. Health related quality of life is closely related with daily physical activity level, much more than with FEV1 (or GOLD-stage).

N/A

Observational study without intervention