# Increasing Adherence to Pulmonary Rehabilitation after COPD-related Hospitalizations

> **NIH NIH R33** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2021 · $562,953

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT / SUMMARY
Despite proven benefits, the proportion of people with COPD who receive Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is
very small. The current model of a center-based PR program fails to address the needs of many patients with
COPD. The most common patient barrier to attendance is travel to center-based programs, particularly for frail
patients with more severe COPD who need transportation assistance. Home-based, unsupervised PR has
been proposed as an alternative model to hospital-based programs and has been found to be safe and
effective. In particular PR post-hospitalization has been reported as the most effective intervention to prevent a
hosptal readmission; however, the reality is that many times this is not a feasible intervention as only 4% of
eligible individuals are able to adhere to PR after a hospital admission (for multiple reasons). While COPD is
responsible for nearly 700,000 hospitalizations annually, many of these hospitalizations, which account for a
large proportion of the annual direct medical costs of COPD, are potentially preventable readmissions.
In this award we plan to add Health Coaching to PR to promote a behavior change based on our
previous work (R01 HL09468), that was shown to be highly effective to decrease COPD re-hospitalizations and
sustainably improve QOL. We propose a simple system of Remote PR that may fill the practice gap
based on our previous work (R44 HL114162; Kramer, PI; Benzo). A refined home-based PR will be tested
in a well-powered phase 2 randomized clinical trial of 150 patients that will be started in the R61 period and
finalized in the R33 period.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10241515
- **Project number:** 5R33HL142933-04
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Roberto Pablo Benzo
- **Activity code:** R33 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $562,953
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-20 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10241515

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10241515, Increasing Adherence to Pulmonary Rehabilitation after COPD-related Hospitalizations (5R33HL142933-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10241515. Licensed CC0.

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