Occupational therapy intervention in the treatment of patients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

The therapeutic value of occupational therapy was examined on the patients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 7 male subjects (61.67 ± 6.11 yrs) who were on pulmonary rehabilitation proramme in the Military Hospital, Yaba were studied. They all gave informed consent. They attended the programme thrice weekly for a total of 2 hours (1 hour for health education and 1 hour for therapeutic activities). The therapy was on for the period of 6 weeks. The patients were assessed on activity performance before and after the 6 weeks of treatment using (an adaptation of) Canadian occupational performance measure (COPM) scores P1 (pre-treatment COPM scores) and P2 (post-treatment COPM scores). At the end of the 6-week treatment, significant improvements were observed in ADL (by 3.53 ± 0.06), Occupational activity (by 3.42 ± 0.06), Cognition (by 3.66 ± 0.07), and Leisure (by 2.58 ± 0.02) areas (P < 0.01 in each case). This study presents occupational therapy as a rare and indispensably important therapy for COPD patients in addition to their medication.

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 7 (1) 2008 pp. 19-22