Study Evaluates Effects of COPD Self-Management Support Intervention Program

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects many individuals worldwide, however, it is a preventable and treatable disease. A recent study investigated the effects of the COPD-specific health promoting self-management intervention (SMI) called “Better Living with COPD” and found that the intervention had a significant positive short-term effect on some self-management-related domains, but further research is needed to establish efficacy over the long term.

The trial involved 182 people with COPD who were assigned to the intervention group, who were offered Better Living with COPD in addition to their usual care, or a control group, who received their usual care. The researchers used the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) to measure the self-management-related domains before and after intervention.

SMIs for patients with COPD are “structured but personalized and often multi-component interventions, with goals of motivating, engaging and supporting the participants to positively adapt their behavior(s) and develop skills to better manage their disease,” the authors note. “SMIs should provide information, elicit personalized goals, formulate appropriate strategies, and focus on intrinsic processes (eg, motivation, resource utilization, coping, and self-efficacy), and mental health,” said the authors. “Furthermore, behavior change techniques are recommended to elicit participants’ motivation, confidence, and competence.”

Self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and sense of coherence (SOC) were measured by the 13-item Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13), according to the study.

Following an intention-to-treat (iTT) analysis and a per-protocol analysis (PPA), significant changes on constructive attitudes and approaches, as well as skill and technique, were observed from the heiQ data. Additionally, self-monitoring and insight demonstrated significant positive change in the PPA; however, now changes were found on the other self-management domains, according to the results.

The researchers concluded that the Better Living with COPD program had a significant positive short-term effect on some areas of self-management and could contribute in a positive way for patients with COPD.

However, they said “further work is necessary to establish possible long-term effects of Better Living with COPD on the specified domains and to evaluate possible long-term effects on SOC and self-efficacy.”

Reference

Bringsvor HB, Langeland E, Oftedal BF, Skaug K, Assmus J, Bentsen SB. [published online November 8, 2018].

Effects of a COPD self-management support intervention: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis.

Doi: 10.2147/COPD.S181005