Patients' perspective on pulmonary rehabilitation: experiences of European and American individuals with chronic respiratory diseases

Despite the fact that pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the most powerful nonpharmacological intervention to improve the symptoms, exercise capacity and quality of life of people living with chronic lung disease [1], fewer than 2% of eligible patients enrol [2, 3]. While preparing a joint American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) Policy Statement on pulmonary rehabilitation [4], we developed a survey to better understand patients' perspectives on PR, and to identify challenges faced both by patients who have taken part in PR and those who might be eligible but have not had the opportunity. The survey was disseminated via the European Lung Foundation/ERS and ATS Public Advisory Roundtable professional patient networks, and via the COPD Foundation and Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to patients with a wide range of chronic lung diseases. The survey was available online from July, 2014 to November, 2014 in 10 languages (Dutch, English, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish). Responses were received from 1685 people (73% female) with self-reported chronic lung disease in 29 countries (USA: 71.1%; Europe: 27.4%; others: 1.5%) and were included in the analyses (table 1).