A comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program: Its effect on the psychological and social concomitants of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The study, using a quasi-experimental design, examined the relationship between participation in a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program, locus of control, and the psychological and social concomitants of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study investigated the following questions. To what degree participation in a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program emphasizing a psychosocial component would: (1) generally produce a shift in persons from an external locus of control toward an internal locus of control, (2) specifically decrease the perception of chance, fate, or powerful others to influence and determine personal health; and (3) will result in the lessening of perceived negative effects of the psychological and social concomitants of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Two sample groups were evaluated in the study: (1) a group of 35 moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients enrolled in a 96-hour comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program with a 32-hour psychosocial instructional component, and (2) a group of 35 moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients receiving standard medical care at a Veterans Administration Hospital. Research instruments used for the study were the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale and the Sickness Impact Profile. The research instruments were administered to each study group at approximately 16-week intervals. Results of the study indicated that participation in a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program emphasizing a psychosocial component did not produce a significant shift in program participants from an external locus of control toward an internal locus of control, nor did it produce a significant decrease in the perception of chance, fate, or powerful others to influence and determine personal health. However, the study results indicated that participation in a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program did produce a significant (P < .05) lessening of perceived negative physical and psychosocial effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as measured by the physical scale, psychosocial scale, and total score of the Sickness Impact Profile