Managing breathlessness: preferences and choice
17th May 2022
Chronic breathlessness is a burden on individuals, family, society, and health systems. Ageing populations with complex multimorbidities are increasing but there is a lack of services to help them managing chronic breathlessness. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this. Online breathlessness interventions have been proposed to fill this gap, but need development and evaluation based on patient preferences and choices.
Researchers based at the Cicely Saunders Institute set out to explore the preferences and choices of patients regarding the content of an online self-guided chronic breathlessness supportive intervention (SELF-BREATHE).
The team carried out semi-structured telephone interviews with adults living with chronic breathlessness (July – November 2020). The interviews were analysed using conventional and summative content analysis.
The researchers found that individuals strongly preferred focused education, and methods to increase self-motivation and engagement. Preferred interventions included targeting breathing and physical function, personalised software and content for SELF-BREATHE to make it more meaningful to the user, and aesthetically designed content using a variety of methods including written, video and audio content. They also identified the need to address motivation as a key determinant of the success of SELF-BREATHE.
These findings will directly inform the content development of SELF-BREATHE, and other patient-facing interventions for chronic breathlessness, to optimise acceptability and potential for benefit.
Reilly C, Bristowe K, Roach A, Chalder T, Maddocks M, Higginson I. ‘The whole of humanity has lungs, doesn’t it, we are not all the same sort of people’: patient preferences and choices for an online, self-guided chronic breathlessness supportive intervention (SELF-BREATHE). ERJ Open Research. 2022 Apr 26.