Patient self-management in primary care patients with COPD - an RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient self-management in primary care patients with COPD - a randomised controlled trial
IRAS ID
124057
Contact name
Kate Jolly
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Research summary
‘COPD’ is a lung condition in which patients experience shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and tiredness, with periods of worsening which require antibiotics and sometimes admission to hospital. It is a major cost to the health service, largely as a result of hospital admissions. Management of the condition is based on smoking cessation, inhaled medications and rehabilitation. Self-management programmes also exist where people are taught about their condition, when to see their GP and what they can do to stay healthy. These include support for stopping smoking, physical activity, correct use of medicines and managing breathlessness. Research studies report better quality of life and fewer admissions to hospital in people who attended a self-management programme. However, the people in most of the studies have severe lung disease and we don’t know whether these programmes would help people who have milder disease. We propose testing a self-management programme in general practice, in which a self-management programme will be compared to usual care to find out whether it benefits patients in this setting.
First of all we will undertake a small feasibility study to test the feasibility of the study and the acceptability of the self-management package. Then, 553 people with COPD managed in general practice will be randomly allocated to receive a self-management programme or usual care. We will provide the self-management programme over 6 months. It will consist of four telephone consultations and three mailings of written material. These will focus on stopping smoking (in smokers), increasing physical activity, taking medication correctly and knowing when to seek medical advice. To find out whether the programme is beneficial we will compare quality of life (measured by questionnaire) in those who received the self-management programme with those who did not, as well as amount of physical activity undertaken, rates of smoking and use of health services after 6 and 12 months. We will measure the costs of usual care and the exercise programme over the year of follow-up to see whether the self-management programme is cost-effective.Interviews with people who took part in the self-management programme will find out how well they were able to make changes to the way they managed their condition.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/WM/0206
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion