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Evidence summaries

Telehealthcare for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Telehealthcare in COPD appears to have a possible impact on the quality of life of patients and the number of times patients attend the emergency department and the hospital. Level of evidence: "B"

The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes).

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 on telehealthcare for COPD included 10 studies with a total of 1 307 subjects. Three studies used the telephone system, three used the Internet, one used a specialist independent network with video and three used videoconferencing. Telehealthcare was associated with a clinically significant increase in quality of life (mean difference -6.57, 95% CI -13.62 to 0.48; 2 trials, n=253). Telehealthcare showed a significant reduction in the number of patients with one or more emergency department attendances over 12 months (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.66; 3 trials, n= 449). OR of having one or more admissions to hospital over 12 months was 0.46 (95% CI 0.33 to 0.65; 6 trials, n=604). There was no significant difference in the OR for deaths over 12 months for the telehealthcare group as compared to the usual care group (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.75; 3 trials, n=503).

Clinical comments

Most telehealthcare interventions for COPD have been introduced as part of a complex package of enhanced care. More research is needed to help to determine the precise contribution of telehealthcare to the package. Substantial aspects of the technology are inconclusive.

Note

Date of latest search:

    References

    • McLean S, Nurmatov U, Liu JL et al. Telehealthcare for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011;(7):CD007718. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords