ArticleChronic respiratory disease
Establishing a pulmonary rehabilitation programme in primary care in Greece: A FRESH AIR implementation study.
Article in Chronic respiratory disease. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Efficacy of Smartphone App-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Chronic Respiratory Diseases: Randomized Controlled and Feasibility Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Patient outcomes following GPs' educations about COPD: a cluster randomized controlled trial.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2020Trial
- Low-cost pulmonary rehabilitation for chronic respiratory diseases: a narrative review.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Review
- Designing an effective pulmonary rehabilitation program for severe asthma.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- PURE PRIME: Implementing PUlmonary REhabilitation in PRIMary carE: a protocol for a randomized controlled feasibility trial.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Delivering remote pulmonary rehabilitation in Bangladesh: a mixed-method feasibility study.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Article
- Is telerehabilitation an effective maintenance strategy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases: a systematic review.Bulletin of the National Research Centre · 2023Review
- Article
- The Impact of the Pay-for-Performance Program on the Outcome of COPD Patients in Taiwan After One Year.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2022Article
- Understanding lung health beliefs in low-resource settings.The Lancet. Global health · 2022Article
- Targeting exertional breathlessness to improve physical activity: the role of primary care.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2021Review
- Pilot of a community-based interprofessional "student-infused" pulmonary rehabilitation program in Saint John, New Brunswick.Canadian journal of respiratory therapy : CJRT = Revue canadienne de la therapie respiratoire : RCTR · 2021Article
- A systematic approach to context-mapping to prepare for health interventions: development and validation of the SETTING-tool in four countries.BMJ global health · 2021Review
- Global RECHARGE: Establishing a standard international data set for pulmonary rehabilitation in low- and middle-income countries.Journal of global health · 2020Review
- Clinical Characteristics, Treatment Patterns and Economic Burden of COPD in Kyrgyzstan: A FRESH AIR Study.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an evidence-based, low-cost, non-medical treatment approach for patients with chronic respiratory diseases. This study aimed to start and assess the feasibility, acceptability and impact of a PR programme on health and quality of life of respiratory patients, for the first time in primary care in Crete, Greece and, particularly, in a low-resource rural setting. This was an implementation study with before-after outcome evaluation and qualitative interviews with patients and stakeholders. In a rural primary healthcare centre, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and/or asthma were recruited. The implementation strategy included adaptation of a PR programme previously developed in United Kingdom and Uganda and training of clinical staff in programme delivery. The intervention comprised of 6 weeks of exercise and education sessions, supervised by physiotherapists, nurse and general practitioner. Patient outcomes (Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Incremental Shuttle Walking Test (ISWT)) were analysed descriptively. Qualitative outcomes (feasibility, acceptability) were analysed using thematic content analysis. With minor adaptations to the original programme, 40 patients initiated (24 with COPD and 16 with asthma) and 31 completed PR (19 with COPD and 12 with asthma). Clinically important improvements in all outcomes were documented (mean differences (95% CIs) for CCQ: -0.53 (-0.81, -0.24), CAT: -5.93 (-8.27, -3.60), SGRQ: -23.00 (-29.42, -16.58), PHQ-9: -1.10 (-2.32, 0.12), ISWT: 87.39 (59.37, 115.40)). The direct PR benefits and the necessity of implementing similar initiatives in remote areas were highlighted. This study provided evidence about the multiple impacts of a PR programme, indicating that it could be both feasible and acceptable in low-resource, primary care settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.