PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE OUTCOMES OF A RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF EXERCISE AMONG PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY-DISEASE

Exercise rehabilitation is recommended increasingly for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study examined the effect of exercise and education on 79 older adults (M age = 66.6 +/- 6.5 years; 53% female) with COPD, randomly assigned to 10 weeks of (a) exercise, education, and stress management (EXESM; n = 29); (b) educa tion and stress management (ESM; n = 25); or (c) waiting list (WL; n = 25). EXESM included 37 sessions of exercise, 16 educational lectures, and 10 weekly stress management classes. ESM included only the 16 lec tures and 10 stress management classes. Before and after the intervent ion, assessments were conducted of physiological functioning (pulmonar y function, exercise endurance), psychological well-being (depression, anxiety, quality of life), and cognitive functioning (attention, moto r speed, mental efficiency, verbal processing). Repeated measures mult ivariate analysis of variance indicated that EXESM participants experi enced changes not observed among ESM and WL participants, including im proved endurance, reduced anxiety, and improved cognitive performance (verbal fluency).