• Joshua Bishop, Lissa Spencer, and Jennifer Alison.
• Physiotherapy, Balmain Hospital, Balmain, New South Wales, Australia joshua.bishop@health.nsw.gov.au.
• BMJ Open Respir Res. 2020 Sep 1; 7 (1).

IntroductionPulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a key component in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is no strong evidence on the optimal duration of PR programmes. The aim of this study is to determine whether an 8-week PR programme is equivalent to a 12-week PR programme in people with COPD.Methods And AnalysisThis study will be a prospective, multisite, randomised controlled, equivalence trial with assessors blinded to group allocation and intention-to-treat analysis. 72 participants with COPD will be recruited and randomised to either a supervised, twice weekly for 8 weeks or a 12-week PR programme of exercise training and education.Primary Outcomeendurance shuttle walk test.Secondary Outcomeswill include St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, 6-min walk distance, COPD assessment test, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, physical activity monitoring and hospital admissions at 6 months and 12 months. Repeated measures analysis of variance will be used to analyse differences between the groups for all outcomes.Ethics And DisseminationEthics approval was gained from all participating sites. Results of the trial will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.Trial Registration NumberACTRN12616001586404.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

20 keywords...

hide…