Improving breathlessness and fatigue in patient with COPD

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Dyspnea (shortness of breathing) and fatigue are the two most common symptoms experienced by patients with COPD. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of breathlessness and fatigue management guidelines on breathlessness and fatigue among the patients suffering from COPD. Subjects and Methods: A purposeful sample of 50 adult patients was selected from the respiratory disease clinic at Ain Shams University Hospital. Tools for data collection: Patient's assessment and clinical data sheet, patient's breathlessness and fatigue knowledge questionnaire, Patients' practices observational checklists, Modified Borg Scale (MBS), Medical Research Council (MRC) breathlessness scale, The Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory Short Form (MFSI-SF) and Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) were used to collect data. Results: All of the studied patients had unsatisfactory knowledge and the minority of them had unsatisfactory practices regarding dyspnea and fatigue management before educational guidelines intervention, which improved after guideline intervention with a highly significant differences. Also, the breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety improved in patients with COPD who received breathlessness and fatigue management guidelines. Conclusions: Implementation of breathlessness and fatigue management guidelines had improved patients' level of knowledge, practices, dyspnea, dimensions of fatigue and anxiety level. Recommendations: Conducting comprehensive health education programs for patients with COPD in outpatients' clinics with simplified printed guidelines through leaflets or brochures explaining how to prevent and control breathlessness and fatigue and Further evaluation of the effect of strategies to prevent and ameliorate breathlessness and fatigue intensity and distress responses in larger sample of COPD patients in order to generalize the results.