Meta- analysis revealed few clinical ly relevant and statistically significant benefits of " add-on " therapies on exercise performance compared with exercise training .
The aim of this review was to identify the effectiveness of therapies added on to conventional exercise training to maximise exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) .
The effectiveness of different combinations of pulmonary rehabilitation program components: a randomized controlled trial.
STUDY OBJECTIVES To study the short-term and long-term effects of combining activity training or lectures to exercise training on quality of life , functional status , and exercise tolerance . DESIGN R and omized clinical trial . SETTING Outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation center . PARTICIPANTS Forty-three out patients with COPD . INTERVENTIONS Patients were r and omized to one of three treatment groups : exercise training alone , exercise training plus activity training , and exercise training plus a lecture series . The mean treatment period was 10 weeks . MEASUREMENT The Chronic Respiratory Disease Question naire , the modified version of the Pulmonary Functional Status and Dyspnea Question naire , and the COPD Self-Efficacy Scale were administered at baseline , and 6 , 12 , 18 , and 24 weeks from the beginning of the rehabilitation program . The 6-min walk test was used to measure exercise tolerance . RESULTS Benefits of activity training combined with exercise included less dyspnea ( p < or = 0.04 ) and fatigue ( p < or = 0.01 ) , and increased activity involvement ( p < or = 0.02 ) and total functional status ( p < or = 0.02 ) in the short term compared to comparison treatment groups for comparatively older participants . Compared to the lecture series adjunct , the activity training adjunct result ed in significantly higher gains in total quality of life ( p = 0.04 ) maintained at 24 weeks . Significantly worse emotional function and functional status result ed from the lecture series adjunct in the oldest participants ( p < or = 0.03 ) . Treatment groups did not differ significantly on exercise tolerance or self-efficacy . CONCLUSIONS Evidence for additional benefits of activity-specific training combined with exercise was found . A behavioral method emphasizing structured controlled breathing and supervised physical activity was statistically significantly more effective than didactic instruction in facilitating additional gains and meeting participants ' learning needs
Meta- analysis revealed few clinical ly relevant and statistically significant benefits of " add-on " therapies on exercise performance compared with exercise training .
The aim of this review was to identify the effectiveness of therapies added on to conventional exercise training to maximise exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) .