Nguyen LP, et al. - The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate pulmonary rehabilitation outcomes among individuals with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and non-COPD disease and the impact of gender. The results of this study showed that pulmonary rehabilitation results in different but improved outcomes regardless of gender or disease state.

Methods

• 80 patients were included in this study: 38 men (23 COPD, 15 non-COPD) and 42 women (31 COPD, 11 non-COPD).

Results

• The data presented in this work showed a statistically significant improvement in 6-min walk test distances pre- to post–pulmonary rehabilitation for all members, P = .0003.
• Subgroup analysis demonstrated no statistically significant change in the non-COPD group when divided by gender although both the COPD and non-COPD groups showed overall improvement (P < .0004 and P = .02, respectively).
• A significant statistical improvement was seen in lower and upper extremity strength in all members.
• Only women with COPD demonstrated a statistically significant improvement with respect to overall quality of life as measured by St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (P = .01).
• Women demonstrated significant improvement in their depression score, as well as a trend toward improvement in the University of California San Diego-Shortness of Breath Questionnaire.
• Only men with COPD demonstrated any improvement in their sleep quality measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.