[Is inpatient rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) useful? Results of a prospective 1-year follow-up study].

Success of inpatient therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been assessed in a prospective study of 54 patients (mean age = 63.8y). During hospital stay (mean duration = 27.6d) FEV1% of predicted improved from 42.5% on admission to 51.9% on discharge (p < 0.001). Quality of Life (QoL) (p < 0.05) and Health Satisfaction (p < 0.001) improved significantly. The 22 drop-outs revealed a significantly more depressive coping strategy but did not differ from the remaining 32 patients regarding lung function, sociodemographic data and QoL. One year after the hospital stay the remaining 32 patients showed a still improved FEV1% (46.4%, p < 0.05) and Health Satisfaction (< 0.05) but QoL scores relapsed to entry levels. Better pulmonary long-term effects were achieved by patients with high QoL scores on entry; subjects that tended most to wishful thinking as a coping strategy had worse pulmonary outcome.