Results of the SPACE FOR COPD programme in comparison to pulmonary rehabilitation at 6 months

Home based self management (SM) rehabilitation programmes for patients with COPD offer an alternative to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). There is a lack of evidence of such programmes and furthermore how effective they are in maintaining change compared to PR. We have developed a manual based SM programme for patients with COPD and aim to assess the effectiveness of the SPACE for COPD programme at 6 months. 145 patients (95 males: mean (SD) age 68 (9) yrs; FEV 1 pred 47% (18%)) with COPD were randomised to SPACE or PR. Those in the SPACE group received an introduction to SPACE and 2 telephone calls. PR received 14, 2 hour sessions of education and exercise over 7 weeks. The primary outcome was Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) dyspnoea, with secondary measures of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT) and Endurance Shuttle Walk Test (ESWT). Analysis is presented for HADS of those scoring ≥8 at baseline. Measures were taken at baseline, 7 weeks and six months. A Repeated measures ANOVA was conducted. Results. See table 1. SPACE FOR COPD Pulmonary Rehabilitation Between group differences Baseline 6 months Baseline 6 months CRQ Dyspnoea 2.57 (0.85) 2.82 (1.17) 2.39 (0.80) 3.08 (1.28) -0.62 p=0.451 HADS Anxiety 11.10 (2.68) 10.00 (3.88) 10.75 (2.65) 9.58 (3.81) 0.08 p=0.599 HADS Depression 10.54 (2.51) 10.13 (2.70) 10.62 (2.59) 10.11 (2.13) 0.10 p=0.989 ISWT (metres) 265 (151) 248 (152) 275 (151) 271 (153) -3 p=0.463 ESWT (Seconds) 240 (242) 408 (420) 200 (113) 445 (417) -75 p=0.912 The SPACE FOR COPD programme improves dyspnoea, anxiety and endurance time which are maintained at 6 months. There are no differences in outcome measures at 6 months between SPACE and PR groups.