Abstract
The aim of this study was to understand experiences of participation in a supported self-management programme for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is a wealth of clinical trials examining the outcomes of self-management interventions for individuals with COPD, but current understanding regarding patients' perspectives of such complex interventions is limited. Further insight may help to tailor self-management interventions and maximise patient engagement.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals participating in a self-management programme, SPACE for COPD. Interviews took place at 6 weeks and 6 months following the programme. Data were analysed at each time point using inductive thematic analysis, and subsequently re-examined together.
40 interviews were undertaken and four themes emerged from the analysis: perceptions of the programme; lifestyle changes; social support; and disrupting factors and barriers to maintaining routines.
SPACE for COPD was acceptable to participants in this study. The importance of education and social support was emphasised at both time points studied, but there were challenges such as comorbidities, ill health of family members and limited maintenance of exercise behaviours over the longer term. Further consideration of the role of carers and partners may help to improve adherence to self-management programmes once healthcare professional support has stopped.
Abstract
Participants valued SPACE for COPD but met complex barriers to independently maintain healthy behaviour long-term http://ow.ly/X7Ch30eMTVn
Footnotes
This study is registered at www.isrctn.com with identifier number 35501175.
Support statement: This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute for Health Research Research for Patient Benefit programme (PB-PG-0808-17146). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at openres.ersjournals.com
- Received February 13, 2017.
- Accepted August 6, 2017.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.