COPD National Action Plan:
Community Action Tool
Discover the progress the COPD community has made toward implementing the goals and objectives in the COPD National Action Plan.

World COPD Day 2023 Research Article

Overview

Organization: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Start Date: 11/2023
End Date: 11/2023
Primary Goal: Goal 1: Empower people with COPD, their families, and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.
Secondary Goal(s):
Objective(s):
  • Increase public awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of COPD so that earlier diagnosis of symptomatic individuals becomes the norm
  • Increase the effectiveness and variety of outreach communication campaigns and activities that utilize evidence-based approaches to raise awareness of COPD, particularly among those at high risk, and help people diagnosed with COPD manage the disease
Collaboration: We worked alone
Activity Type: Patient education, Provider education, Research

Activity Description

For World COPD Day 2023, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) issued a research feature titled “Making Strides to Address COPD in Rural Communities.” The article highlights promising research projects that have the potential to improve chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) outcomes in rural and other underserved populations.
There are an estimated 4 million individuals diagnosed with COPD in rural areas, where people with COPD are more likely to experience increased rates of hospital stays and higher mortality rates. The World COPD Day 2023 article notes that NHLBI’s 2018 workshop “COPD & Rural Health: A Dialogue on the National Action Plan Workshop” set the stage for the Institute’s focus on rural COPD research. This workshop helped to identify challenges and opportunities, offered the audience an opportunity to share best practices, worked to foster collaboration, and aided in the development of the COPD National Action Plan.
The article highlighted NHLBI-funded research projects exploring factors contributing to rural health disparities, COPD screening methods, and treatment options for those with health care accessibility challenges:
• The Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Cohort Study (RURAL) is studying regional rates of COPD in rural Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. The study will try to assess the reasons behind higher disease rates and how to prevent them.
• CAPTURE: Validating a Unique COPD Screening Tool in Primary Care is exploring whether a simple questionnaire and breathing test used in primary care settings is effective, viable for use in primary care settings, and helpful in improving the lives of those with COPD who were previously undiagnosed.
• Video Telehealth Pulmonary Rehabilitation to Reduce Hospital Readmission in Chronic Obstructive pulmonary Disease (Tele-COPD) is looking at the value of delivering pulmonary rehabilitation via telehealth. If the service is found to be impactful and practical, COPD patient outcomes in rural areas could be improved through increased access to care.

Audience

General Audience: Patients, Caregivers or family members, General public, Health professionals, Researchers, Policymakers/advocates
Focused Audience: n/a
Program Reach: National
Type of Area: Urban, Suburban, Rural
Setting: Online

Cost and Funding Sources

This activity was funded through NHLBI.

Impact Analysis

In process

Advice or Lessons Learned

N/A

Contact Information

Neyal Ammary-Risch
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Team Lead, Health Education and Research Dissemination
Bethesda
Maryland