This project was based at King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital Research Centre, Pune in India Overview Project title: Formulating and testing a strategy for introducing Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) for COPD management in a rural Indian setting Acute or chronic: Chronic Based at: KEM Hospital Research Centre, Pune Start date: October 2019 End date: December 2020 Principal investigator: Sanjay Juvekar Project team: Parag Khatavkar, Hilary Pinnock, Roberto Rabinovich, Monsur Habib, Vasudeo Paralikar, Neelima Pathak, Aniruddha Nagarkar, Diksha Singh, Dhiraj Agarwal, Sudipto Roy, Rutuja Patil Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the biggest cause of death in rural India and its prevalence continues to increase due to widespread air-pollution. Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is proven to be the most effective strategy to improve shortness of breath, health status and exercise tolerance as well as reducing re-admissions and mortality in patients with recent exacerbations. Despite this, there is no existing programme for PR being systemically introduced in rural India and anecdotal evidence points towards inadequate knowledge and practice of PR in rural areas of the Pune district. Aim and impact The aim is to assess the need for PR from both a caregiver and care recipient’s perspective, while formulating and testing a PR strategy for COPD management in a rural Indian setting. We believe that this study will be the first instance of PR being systematically introduced in rural India and expect it to demonstrate the effects of PR on improving health and quality of life of COPD patients. Key developments Core staff training completed (including visit to Khulna, Bangladesh). PR service planning and data collection are ongoing. Project data Download the project Data Management Plan View project metadata on the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway This article was published on 2024-09-24
