Impact of continuity of care on quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Journal of Integrated Care, Ahead of Print. Purpose Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffer many physical disabilities which cause many problems in their life. These patients really need to have continuity of care based on cooperation between patient, the family and their care givers in order to achieve an integration of care. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of continuous care on quality of life of patients with COPD. Design/methodology/approach A before –after quasi-experimental study was carried out with 72 patients with COPD at Beheshti educational hospital of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. The patients who met inclusion criteria were randomly allocated into an intervention group (n=36) and a control group (n=36). The patients complete d the St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire before and after their care. The intervention comprised continuous care with orientation and sensitization sessions (2 weeks), control and evaluation sessions (45 days) for intervention group and with routine care in the control group. Data were analyzed with SPSS, descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to measure differences between intervention and control group. Findings Continuity of care improved significantly the quality of life of COPD patients in general, and in the symptoms, activity and impact domains (P=0.001). In contra st, routine care did not improve quality of life for patients in general, and in the symptoms,...
Source: Journal of Integrated Care - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research