Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: The Effects of Maintenance Schedules Following Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Brief Summary: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a preventable and treatable condition, is a major healthcare problem with huge human and economic costs. It affects 3 million people, results in 1.4 million consultations, causes 30,000 deaths, and costs £800M per year in the UK. Considerable research expenditure is devoted to finding new and expensive interventions. However pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an available therapeutic option with good evidence of benefit for patients in terms of quality of life and daily functioning.

The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the addition of a maintenance programme following pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD when compared to standard care.

The secondary objective is to identify baseline characteristics that will predict improvement in pulmonary rehabilitation programmes and adherence to maintenance strategies. By measuring a series of demographic, clinical, physiological, psychological and biochemical parameters the researchers hope to be able to predict those patients who are likely to receive the greatest benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation.

An additional objective will be to prepare a detailed maintenance programme manual. This will be available to other centres providing pulmonary rehabilitation at the conclusion of the study


Options:
A: Inclusion Criteria:

* Male or female, aged more than 35 years
* Physician labelled diagnosis of COPD, emphysema or chronic bronchitis
* Ex or current smoker of more than 20 pack years
* FEV1 less than 80% of predicted
* Patients may be taking long or short acting bronchodilators and/or inhaled or oral corticosteroids and/or theophyllines.
* Patients having attended at least 60% of the exercise sessions in the initial PR(22)\* \* This is an inclusion criterion for randomisation to receive maintenance PR or standard medical care but not entry into the study

Exclusion Criteria:

* Significant cardiac or pulmonary disease other than COPD such that COPD is the minor contribution to the patients' symptoms.
* Myocardial infarction within the previous 6 months or unstable angina
* Respiratory infection defined as cough, antibiotic use or purulent sputum within 4 weeks prior to randomisation.
* Severe or uncontrolled co-morbid disease, which is likely to affect the outcome of the study.
* Abnormalities in cognitive functioning that would limit the patient's ability to undertake the procedures required in the study.
* Unable to give written informed consent.
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* present at least one of the following conditions: type 2 diabetes, CVD, heart failure, risk factors (smoking, obesity, hyperlipidemia, glucose intolerance, and metabolic syndrome), COPD or asthma.
* have the potential for rehabilitation

Exclusion Criteria:

* serious cognitive problems
C: Inclusion Criteria:

* Inclusion on cluster level requires the written agreement to participate form the hospital management, the medical head of the division and the head nurse
* Next to this, they have to agree that they will not develop and implement a care pathway for COPD- exacerbation of PFF within the time frame of the study when randomized in the control group
* Finally, the participating hospitals need an expected volume of more than one hundred COPD-exacerbation or PFF patients annually.
* To have a comparable sample across all clusters, the following inclusion criteria on individual level are set:

  1. All professionals that according to the medical head of the division and head nurse are member of the interprofessional team caring for COPD-exacerbation or PFF patients from admission until discharge out of the acute hospital ward
  2. To be part of the interprofessional care team is further conceptualized as being part of the group of clinicians and staff who have a shared clinical purpose and direct care responsibilities for the respective patient group during the set time period
  3. All individual participants need to be member of the team during one specific week, where patients are being followed for the two other trials of the EQCP-project (8). This specific week is chosen by the study coordinator and can be defined as an average week, with normal staff ratios
  4. Because we want to study interprofessional teamwork, each cluster is asked to minimally include the orthopedic surgeons/pneumologists, head nurse, nurses, physiotherapists and social workers in their sample. Based on their own judgment, the chief medical doctor, in consensus with the head nurse, can decide to include other professional groups in their sample
  5. In some hospitals COPD-exacerbation or PFF patients are being admitted at multiple nursing wards, e.g. due to capacity problems or other organizational issues. If that is the case, then the clusters are asked to only include these team members that are working on the ward where the respective patient groups are being admitted most frequently.

Exclusion Criteria:

* All team members that are not working (e.g. on leave) during the chosen week
* All team members who are only temporarily part of the team (e.g. student nurses in training).
D: Inclusion Criteria:

* will be included patients of both sexes,
* over 40 years and diagnosis of COPD according to criteria of ATS, GOLD and II Brazilian Consensus of COPD.
* must be medically stable,
* without having presented the framework of exacerbation of disease over the past 30 days and,
* must have agreed to participate in this study which, after being presented and explained to patients, this accepted should be confirmed by Subscription Term of free and informed consent, pursuant to resolution 96 of 1996 of MS.

Exclusion Criteria:

* will be excluded from the study patients with serious comorbidity,
* orthopedic diseases such as heart defects in upper and lower limbs,
* sequelae of motor neurological disorders or impaired that may interfere with the ability to carry out physical exercise,
* uncontrolled hypertension,
* lung diseases and
* those who do not grant support to participation in this study.

Answer: A