Background
dyspnea, COPD
COPD
Multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programs result in important and clinically relevant improvements for patients with symptomatic COPD, such as improved functional exercise tolerance, muscle force, symptoms of dyspnea and quality of life (QoL) [Programs aiming to improve PA outside a PR-setting, using self-monitoring and feedback strategies (i.e. step counters) have been shown effective in several (short-term) trials [Furthermore, the effect on the maintenance of PR-acquired benefits of programs using wearable technology to promote PA have not been explored in depth yet. It is tempting to speculate that enhanced PA may indeed be crucial to maintain the benefits of a PR-program.We conducted a RCT which aimed to investigate (1) Whether implementation of a (semi-automated) PA-telecoaching program, started after 3 months of PR, was effective at increasing PA after 9 months of follow-up (i.e. the long-term effects) and (2) If this PA program resulted in maintained PR-acquired benefits in terms of physical fitness (exercise tolerance, skeletal muscle strength), symptoms and health-related QoL.