Understanding hospital associated disability in exacerbations of COPD

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Understanding the effects of hospital-associated disability in exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

• IRAS ID

  239167

• Contact name

  Neil Greening

• Contact email

  njg27@le.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leicester

• Duration of Study in the UK

  4 years, 6 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Background
  1 in 4 people in the UK have at least one long term, or chronic, condition. These people are commonly at risk of developing both acute crises of their long term illness and additional illness and ending up in hospital. While the aim of being in hospital is to improve the acute illness, it can have detrimental effects, reducing the ability to walk, do everyday tasks and cause muscle wasting. This is known as hospital-associated disability.
  One group at particular risk are patients with smoking related lung damage- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). COPD is currently the 4th largest cause of disability and the 2nd most likely cause of unscheduled or emergency admission to hospital in the UK. This is due to "flare-ups" of their disease, also known as exacerbations. Whilst patients with COPD mainly have problems with their lungs they can also develop systemic consequences, of which muscle weakness and wasting are well recognised. This combination of pre-existing muscle disease and high risk of admission to hospital make them prone to “hospital-associated disability” (HAD) Despite the recognition of the importance of HAD and hospitalisation for an exacerbation of COPD very little is understood about the process and about potential treatments to minimise the effects.

  Aim
  (1) Establish the assessment and understanding of hospital-associated disability in people admitted to hospital with exacerbations of COPD

  Study Design
  The research will observe patients through their admission to hospital for an exacerbation of COPD until they are recovered.

  We plan to follow patients admitted to hospital with an exacerbation of COPD and see how they are affected by HAD and the process of recovery. We also want to be able to identify patients at high risk of developing HAD. People will be ask to join the study when they come in hospital and will be seen for eight weeks. We will do some measures to look at walking, standing, their symptoms, their quality of life, and muscle size and strength. We will also ask them how best we can recruit people to a trial in this setting. We will also see people again eight weeks later, when they have recovered from their hospital admission.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/EM/0114

• Date of REC Opinion

  1 May 2018

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion