The Unmet Educational Needs of Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease. Setting the Stage for Tailored Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

RATIONALE

There is no standardized education program for patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Pulmonary rehabilitation is a resource for structured disease education that is still geared primarily toward patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVES

The goals of this qualitative study were to identify the educational needs of patients with ILD and explore how pulmonary rehabilitation can become an appropriate setting for ILD education.

METHODS

Four focus groups including 24 patients with ILD and 10 semistructured interviews with healthcare professionals with expertise in ILD and/or pulmonary rehabilitation were conducted in two academic centers (University of California San Francisco and Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal). We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of the transcripts using an iteratively developed codebook.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The transcript analysis highlighted four major themes: patient dissatisfaction with the current educational model, lack of attention to emotional well-being, specific recommendations for educational content, and operationalizing education in the context of pulmonary rehabilitation. Seven key topics to be included an ILD-specific, pulmonary rehabilitation-based education program were identified: disease education, symptom management, clinical tests, autonomy, oxygen use, medications, and end-of-life counseling.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a better understanding of the needs of patients and healthcare providers regarding education of patients with ILD. It lays the foundation for the development of a structured education intervention that could be delivered in the context of pulmonary rehabilitation.