Integrating patients with respiratory and cardiac disease in one rehabilitation programme: clinical outcomes of a pragmatic service evaluation

Background: Rehabilitation is a successful intervention for patients with pulmonary and cardiac disease. The interventions are usually provided as disease-specific programmes; yet their components are the same and both treat breathlessness symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a breathlessness rehabilitation programme. Methods: Patients attended rehabilitation twice/week for 6 weeks to complete education, aerobic and resistance exercises. Typical rehabilitation outcomes were collected pre and post the programme. Results: 99 patients (54.5% COPD, 17.1% Heart Failure, 28.4% other) went through the breathlessness programme in 8 months. 56 had complete pre-post data. 58% male, mean age 69.3 (SD11.5) years, BMI 29.9 (SD7.4). See table 1 for outcomes. Conclusions: The results show that patients had statistically and clinically significant improvements in typical rehabilitation outcomes: comparable with previous research and UK national audit data. The success of the breathlessness programme allows space to be released in the disease-specific classes which are better suited for patients with more complex needs.