Association between exercise and quality of life in COPD patients: A Systematic Review

Introduction: The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) can affect patients' quality of life (QOL). Aim: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the association between exercise and QOL of patients with COPD following a respiratory rehabilitation program in organized centers of respiratory rehabilitation of hospital units. Material and Methods: A systematic review of papers published up until June 2018 was conducted. Search was performed on PubMed with the key-words: “COPD”, “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”, “physical activity”, “exercise”, “quality of life” and “QOL” as well as on IATROTEK-online with the key-words: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”, “COPD”, “quality of life” and “exercise”. The criteria for inclusion in this review were: the QOL assessment has been done with the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the content of the studies concerns the evaluation of the QOL of COPD patients following respiratory rehabilitation programs in organized centers of respiratory rehabilitation of hospital units. Results: Only 9 of the scientific papers retrieved met the criteria for inclusion in this review. The exercise was found to affect the QOL of COPD patients positively. Although, the degree of improvement in both the overall score and the scores of the three subscales of the SGRQ was not the same in all studies but varied significantly depending on the type of exercise and the limitations of each study. Conclusions: The QOL of patients with COPD was improved after the integration of rehabilitation programs that were performed in specialized respiratory centers of hospital units.

Keywords: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, quality of life, exercise, physical activity