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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Home-Based Prescribed Pulmonary Exercise in Patients with Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Published on: August 24, 2019
COPD and exercise: what's really important? A nursing perspective
1Department of Medicine, Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. jreardo@harthosp.org
Abstract:
Numerous studies demonstrate the importance of exercise training to improve endurance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its positive effect on activities of daily living and quality of life. However, successful care of the individual with COPD also relies on recognizing that this person requires individualized care and non-pharmacologic modalities specific to their needs in order to cope with the various aspects of their disease. It is also important to note that improvement in quality of life is not necessarily related to improvement in exercise endurance alone. Comprehensive and effective pulmonary rehabilitation for the COPD patient needs to encompass several components to provide benefit for the spectrum of symptoms of COPD beyond exercise tolerance and dyspnea to ultimately improve quality of life.
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