A Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self-Management Intervention for Improving Patient-Reported Outcomes in Primary Care in Greece

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Self-management programs are essential for increasing COPD patient participation and autonomy in making appropriate decisions about their chronic condition. The present study aimed to assess the impact of COPD self-management interventions on quality of life, functional status, patient education, depression, and anxiety in primary care. Materials and Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial recruiting patients with COPD (GOLD A and B) from four primary care centers in Crete, Greece, with one intervention group (n = 40) receiving self-management educational support and one control group (n = 80) receiving usual care. To measure quality of life, functional status, patient education, depression, and anxiety, we used patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) at baseline and 6 months post-intervention, including the Short-Form Health survey (SF-12), Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), mMRC, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory, Health Education Impact Questionnaire (HeiQ), and Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ). Results: At the end of the 6-month intervention, most PROMs improved significantly in the intervention group (p < 0.05) but did not show significant changes in the control group. The greatest improvements at follow-up compared to baseline measurements were observed for dyspnea (mMRC—38.6%), anxiety (BAI—35%), depression (BDI—20.2%), COPD health status (CCQ—34.1%), and the actively managing my health subscale of HLQ (23.5%). Conclusions: Our results suggest that a self-management intervention could be an effective strategy for improving PROMs in primary care. Although more research is needed to identify the long-term effects of such interventional programs, policymakers could implement similar programs to improve the overall health of these patients.