Self-rated health aspects among persons living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Anne-Grethe Halding, Ellen Karine Grov

Faculty of Health Studies, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Førde, Norway

Purpose: To describe a cohort of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and perform a within-group comparison regarding self-management activation, social provision, and health status.
Patients and methods: A cross-sectional survey including 116 persons.
Results: The sample comprised 65 men and 38 women, mean age 69 years. Fourteen percent reported very high impact of COPD on their health; 19% had received pulmonary rehabilitation offers, 39% had been offered self-management education, and 64% had acute hospital admissions due to COPD complications in the past year. Persons with COPD Assessment Test (CAT) scores ≥30 reported significantly poorer self-management activation and significantly lower social provision than those reporting CAT scores <30. Number of COPD years had no significant influence on COPD health care consultations or self-management activation.
Conclusion: Persons with COPD reported decreasing social provision with increasing COPD years and poorer health status. Although COPD is a progressive disease, health status and self-management activation did not vary with number of COPD years. Those living with a very high COPD impact on health reported significantly lower self-management activation but fewer acute hospital admissions.
Practice implications: COPD patients’ need for pulmonary rehabilitation, self-management support, and social support should be assessed and appropriate services offered throughout the disease trajectory.

Keywords: self-management, social support, participatory research, pulmonary rehabilitation, COPD Assessment Test, patient activation measure, PAM