Efficacy of DVD Technology in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Self- Management Education of Rural Patients

Despite the efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation programs which assist patients in managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the high costs and lack of availability of such programs pose considerable barriers for underserved COPD patients, such as those living in rural communities. Because of this, patients are encouraged to actively self-manage COPD. Unfortunately, COPD patients have reported dissatisfaction with the self-management education they are provided. This mixed methods study assessed the self-management learning needs of COPD patients treated at a Certified Federal Rural Health Clinic through conducting focus group interviews (n = 2) to inform the development a targeted self-management education DVD. The effectiveness of 3 distinct educational treatments (DVD vs. Pamphlet vs. DVD Pamphlet) was evaluated by comparing outcomes related to informational needs, self-management self-efficacy, and generic/lung-specific HRQoL in a randomly-assigned, multiple-group pretestposttest design with a control group (n = 41). Focus group data was analyzed using three qualitative analysis tools. Findings from the interviews indicated that patients viewed self-management as simply taking prescribed medications and reducing activity. Patients reported a lack of knowledge and skill development related to rehabilitative activities such as controlled breathing and stress reduction. A multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted to determine the effect of 3 educational treatments on multiple outcome measures. Three nontrend orthogonal planned contrasts were tested to determine selected contrast effects. The data analysis revealed that participants receiving a DVD reported statistically significantly higher levels of lung-specific physical functioning as compared to those in the Pamphlet group. Additionally, the DVD group revealed clinically significant improvements on the physical ( 19.01) and emotional ( 10.74) functioning dimensions of lung-specific HRQoL; whereas, no such improvement occurred within the Pamphlet and control groups. Results also suggested that providing patients with a Pamphlet alone was more effective than providing participants with both interventions concurrently to increase self-management self-efficacy. The simultaneous provision of both interventions did, however, enhance generic HRQoL more so than the provision of one of the two treatments alone. Finally, any type of self-management education as compared to usual care did not statistically significantly improve outcome variables among this small sample of rural patients.