Excellent adherence and no contamination by physiotherapists involved in a randomized controlled trial on reactivation of COPD patients: a qualitative process evaluation study

Figures & data

Table 1 The nine aspects of the COPE-active program, with number of items per aspect, the score per item, and the maximum score per aspect

Aspect	Description	Number of items per aspect	Score per item	Maximum score per aspect
1	Frequency of physiotherapeutic sessions (twice a week in the first 6 months; once a week thereafter)	1	1	1
2	Duration of physiotherapeutic sessions (60 minutes)	1	1	1
3	Type of exercises in physiotherapeutic sessions (cycling, walking, walking stairs, lifting [optional: push/pull])	5	0.25	1*
4†	Increasing intensity of exercises	5	0.25	1*
5	Number of exercise sessions at home per week (at least one)	1	1	1
6	Type of exercises at home (one strength exercise of the lower extremities + one strength exercise of upper extremities + one exercise for endurance training: walking or cycling)	7	0.14	1
7†	Increasing intensity of exercises at home	7	0.14	1
8	Within muscle strength training session: three repeating series	2	0.5	1
9	Use of Borg scores	1	1	1
	Total	30		9

Notes:

* Extra exercises (aspect 3: push/pull; aspect 4: push/pull, rowing, etc) could be scored, resulting in a surplus value of 0.25. Final aspect score cannot exceed 1;

† in patients receiving physiotherapy for more than 6 months these aspects have been excluded because they are no longer applicable.

Figure 1 Flow diagram of patient progress through the COPE II-study.

Figure 2 The median, 25th and 75th percentile of total scores and outliers (*) of patients receiving regular physiotherapy and COPE-active in two different time periods within the COPE-II study.

Figure 3 Individual patient’s scores of the COPE-active group (○) and the group receiving regular physiotherapy (△) per physiotherapist.

Notes: Seven physiotherapists (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, and 12) trained patients of both study groups and three physiotherapists were not participating in the COPE-II study (13, 17, and 18). In four cases two patients trained by the same physiotherapist had exactly the same score (*).

Figure 4 Relative contribution (%) of each of the nine aspects constituting the (mean) COPE-active score, for both the COPE-active patients and those receiving regular physiotherapy.

Notes: Data are divided in patients receiving less than six months (maximal contribution of 9 items) and more than six months (maximal contribution of 7 items) of physiotherapy. *(1) Number of physiotherapeutic sessions per week; (2) duration of a physiotherapeutic session; (3) type of exercises in physiotherapeutic sessions; (4) increasing intensity of physiotherapeutic sessions; (5) number of exercise sessions at home; (6) type of exercises at home; (7) increasing intensity of exercises at home; (8) number of repeating sessions in training; (9) use of Borg-scores.