BACKGROUND Poor uptake and adherence are problematic for hospital-based pulmonary and heart failure rehabilitation programs, often because of access difficulties. The aims of this mixed-methods study were to determine the feasibility of a supervised exercise training program in a community gymnasium in people with chronic respiratory and chronic cardiac disease, to explore the experiences of pa...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has inconsistent effects on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with chronic lung diseases. We evaluated the effect of PR on HRQL outcomes using the 36-item short form of the medical outcomes (SF-36). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the files of all patients who completed PR in 2010, 2011, and first half of 2012. We collected informat...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was the third leading cause of mortality in the United States in 2009 and accounts for millions of dollars in health care expenses annually. It is characterized by slow declines in functional ability and exercise tolerance, which are strongly predictive of poor health-related quality of life and survival. The cycle of physical, social, and psychosoci...

Post-acute rehabilitation for persons with acquired brain injury (ABI, i.e., trauma, stroke, anoxia) refers to a variety of rehabiitafion services provided in various, typically nonhospital contexts. Post-acute service options include skilled nursing facility-based rehabilitation programs (also commonly referred to as "sub-acute" programs), residential treatment programs (also referred to as tr...

Affiliations: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science; 1st Department of Respiratory Medicine, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Unit; 1st Department of Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centre, Athens, Greece. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA. Dept of R...