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Background & Aim: Fatigue is a premature symptom in the patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of breathing exercises on fatigue level of COPD patients.

Methods & Materials: This clinical trial is a semi-experimental study. 60 patients suffering COPD which are bedridden at, Tehran university of Medical Sciences hospital wards which have been sampled simply and divided into experience and control group randomly. Data gathering is done by interview and data registration from the files. The data gathering tools are questionnaires, fatigue severity scale (FSS) and respiratory exercise usage checklist. The questionnaire includes to sections of demographic characteristics and patient info. The exercises check list is scaled from 0 to 40 in the way that the maximum amount of usage in 10 days, for 4 daily sessions would be 40 and for the case of usage 0 score is assigned. Fatigue severity scale includes 9 questions with visual diagrams scaled from 0 (Lack of fatigue) to 4 (server fatigue). The gathered data is analysis using SPSS software and the descriptive and deductive statistical methods (Tisuchi, Kai2 and Pearson correlation exam) are used to achieve the research goals. Results: The results show that the average fatigue intensity for the experience group is 40.916 with the standard deviation of 14.4 and for the control group is 52.20 with 8.539 standard deviation after the study and statistical T-exam (p=0.001) indicated that there is a significant difference in fatigue severity between experience and control groups after the study. The findings also showed that the average fatigue severity before (55.766) and after (40.166) using the respiratory exercises in the experience group (p<.001) has enormous difference. While the average fatigue severity in the control group (p=0.002) before (54.166) and after (52.200) the study has a ting difference. Regarding the correlation of using respiratory exercises and the changes in fatigue severity, the Pearson statistical exam showed that there is a significant reverse correlation between using respiratory exercises and fatigue severity (r=-0.593, p=0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the research findings it can be concluded that using respiratory exercises is effective in reducing the fatigue in the patients with COPD that also confirms the research assumption and the more the respiratory exercises are used the less is the amount of fatigue in the interfered samples.

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Background & Aim: Fatigue is a premature symptom in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study aimed to determine effect of the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation on fatigue among patients with COPD.

Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial, 36 patients were recruited among from 100 patients with COPD according to inclusion criteria in Masih Daneshvari hospital in 2010. Participants were allocated into two control and intervention groups using random block sampling. In the intervention group, the pulmonary rehabilitation program was implemented during three educational sessions in three consecutive days. Fatigue was measured using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) before and seven weeks after discharge. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests (Independent and paired t-test, chi-square and covariance analysis).

Results: At baseline, the mean scores of fatigue were 47.11 and 47.50 in the experimental and control groups, respectively (P=0.902). After the intervention, the mean scores of fatigue reached 21.94 and 54.64 in the experimental and control groups, respectively (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to results of the study, home-based pulmonary rehabilitation nursing could decrease fatigue in patients with COPD.

 

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  Background & Aim: Exacerbation of the symptoms among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a part of the disease's cycle . Despite having medical treatments, most patients experience severe degrees of dyspnea. Self-management programs can help relieving the symptoms. T his study aimed to assess the effect of a self-management program on dyspnea and fatigue severity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) .

  Methods & Materials: In this randomized clinical trial, 50 patients with COPD referred to Apadana clinic in Ahvaz were recruited into the study. Patients were randomly allocated to control and intervention groups. The intervention group received a self-management program designed based on the 5A model the control group did not receive any intervention. Patients were assessed using the Fatigue Severity Scale and the Borg Dyspnea Scale at baseline and three month later. The Chi-squared test and t-test were used to analyze the data . 

  Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in fatigue severity at baseline. At the end of the three months, the fatigue severity score differed significantly between the two groups (P=0.004). There was also significant reduction in the patients' dyspnea in the intervention group than the control group after 12 weeks (P<0.001) .

  Conclusion: Our program was effective in reducing the COPD symptoms among patients. This simple and non-expensive program can be applied as a beneficial intervention to decline major difficulties of the disease among patients with COPD .

  

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Background & Aim: Health promotion nursing activities for the elderly with COPD is different in various health care structures, and research in this area can help to identify the existing knowledge gap. The aim of this study was to determine health promotion nursing activities for the elderly with COPD.
Methods & Materials: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020. A total of 180 nurses working in teaching hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were selected using the convenience sampling method. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire on health promotion nursing activities for the elderly with COPD. The data was analyzed through the SPSS software version 18 using t-test, ANOVA and multivariate regression.
Results: The mean age of nurses was 34.58±8.05 years, 84.4% were female and 70.6% were married. The mean score of health promotion nursing activities was 197.10±37.90. Among the dimensions related to health promotion activities, “drugs/smoking cessation” (34.4%) and “self-empowerment” (32.8%) had the lowest frequency. There was a significant relationship between health promotion nursing activities with the work place (P=0.034), age (P<0.001), gender (P=0.022) and marital status (P=0.014).
Conclusion: The health promotion nursing activities for the elderly with COPD was above moderate levels. In-service training programs and internal conferences are needed especially in the area of ​​counseling behaviors and smoking cessation in order to improve the professional competency of nurses.