[Pulmonary rehabilitation of COPD in Switzerland--an assessment of current status]

The aim of this survey was to characterize respiratory rehabilitation programmes for patients with COPD in Switzerland. Rate of return of questionnaires was 94%. In 2001, 2238 patients with COPD followed an inpatient (1790) or outpatient (448) respiratory rehabilitation programme. This corresponds to 1% of all patients with COPD in Switzerland. Physical exercise is estimated to be significantly more important compared to breathing exercises, patient education and psychosocial support although this prioritization is not as pronounced as in the current literature. Disease-specific instruments to measure health related quality of life that represents the most important outcome measure for patients with COPD should be implemented in practice. Thereby both the components of rehabilitation programmes and predictive factors for a successful rehabilitation could be evaluated.