Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an indispensable component in the nonpharmacological management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with significant improvements in quality of life and exercise capacity. It is strongly supported by systematic reviews (SR) as part of the treatment of these patients. However, it is not known which PR components are essential, such as duration, ideal locations, type and intensity of training, degree of supervision, adherence, cost-effectiveness challenge, and how long the program effects last. This overview aims to evaluate and describe different pulmonary rehabilitation interventions for individuals with COPD.
Methods: Only systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews will be included. The following results were analyzed: health-related quality of life, functional capacity, mortality, dyspnea, cost-effectiveness, and adverse events. The risk of bias will be assessed by the Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews (ROBIS). The methodological quality will be analyzed through the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR-2). We will use the evaluations of the Classification of Recommendations, Evaluation, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) of the authors of the included systematic reviews. The screening of systematic reviews, eligibility evaluation, data extraction, methodological quality, and quality of evidence will be performed in pairs by independent reviewers. The results that have been reported in the included reviews will be summarized in an "Overview of Reviews" table. The main conclusions about the effects of the interventions studied in the included reviews will be summarized and organized in clinically meaningful categories.
Results: The article in this overview will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The results will also be included in a doctoral thesis and disclosed in medical conferences.
Conclusions: We expect to compile evidence from multiple systematic reviews of pulmonary rehabilitation in people with COPD in an accessible and useful document.
Registration number prospero: CRD42019111564.