ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1644607
This article is part of the Research TopicBiomechanics of Aging: Advances in Exercise and Intervention Strategies for Older Adult WellnessView all 13 articles
Factors influencing the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A Prospective study
Provisionally accepted
- Sixth People's Hospital of Nantong, Nantong, China
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Objective: To investigate the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in older adults with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and analyze its influencing factors. Methods: From January 2023 to April 2024, convenience sampling was adopted to collect 254 stable patients with COPD who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria in a Classⅲhospital in Nantong City as the research objects. Among them, 196 patients completed the PR course and were finally included in the study. According to the PR benefit criteria, they were divided into the benefit group and the non-benefit group, and the incidence of benefit and influencing factors were analyzed. The generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to plot the trend profiles of physical capacity and quality of life before rehabilitation and at 3, 6, and 9 weeks after rehabilitation. Results: a total of 196 patients completed the PR course, 107 patients achieved PR benefit, benefit at a rate of 54.59%. Logistic regression analysis showed that, Chronic pain (OR = 0.43, 95%Cl:0.22 ~ 0.83, P = 0.011), baseline 6MWD (OR = 0.98, 95%Cl:0.96 ~ 0.99, P < 0.001), sarcopenia (OR = 0.50, 95%Cl:0.27 ~ 0.95, P = 0.035), better economic situation (OR = 1.96, 95%Cl:1.03 ~ 3.71, P = 0.039), and good family care index (OR = 2.11, 95%Cl:1.08 ~ 4.11, P = 0.029) were the influencing factors of pulmonary rehabilitation benefits in older adults with stable COPD. Conclusion: The PR benefit rate of patients with clinically stable COPD is low, which is mainly affected by the baseline 6MWD, chronic pain, sarcopenia, economic situation, and family care index. Clinical medical staff should consider the influencing factors when they perform PR for patients.
Keywords: COPD, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, older adults, Benefits, A prospective study
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Yang and Yao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liang Yao, Sixth People's Hospital of Nantong, Nantong, China
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