In view of the worldwide aging population, disease-specific geriatric rehabilitation (GR) programs are needed. Therefore, we developed and implemented a postacute GR program for patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (the GR-COPD program). The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of the GR-COPD program and to present clinical data on patient characteristics and course of functional capacity and health status. This is a naturalistic prospective cohort study of patients with advanced COPD. A total of 61 patients entered the GR-COPD program and were eligible to participate in this study. All patients suffered from advanced COPD, and comorbidities were frequent. On admission, functional capacity and health status were severely limited but showed significant and clinically relevant improvement during the GR-COPD program. Patients with advanced COPD admitted to hospital for an acute exacerbation suffer from severely impaired functional capacity and poor health status. Development and implementation of a postacute GR program for these patients are feasible and likely to offer substantial improvements. Further research is essential and should focus on designing a controlled intervention trial to investigate the efficacy of the program.
Keywords: Geriatric rehabilitation; advanced COPD; palliative care; pulmonary rehabilitation; skilled nursing facility.