Family-centred Pulmonary Rehabilitation to Empower Carers

Brief summary (registry, in English)

Chronic respiratory diseases are leading causes of death and disability worldwide, imposing an enormous burden on individuals, families, and societies. Dependence on others begins early in the disease course. Over 70% of people with a chronic respiratory disease rely on informal care for daily assistance. Informal carers face multiple demands that may affect their health and ability to provide care. However, support interventions remain largely absent. Informal carers have identified pulmonary rehabilitation as an opportunity to also support them. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a cornerstone non-pharmacological intervention comprising exercise training, education, psychosocial support, and behaviour change, and is known to improve symptoms, functional capacity, quality of life, and survival. Although including informal carers in pulmonary rehabilitation has shown promising benefits for family adjustment, pulmonary rehabilitation remains patient-centred, with no dedicated support for carers' specific needs. This study will therefore redesign pulmonary rehabilitation to act as a dual-support intervention for both people with chronic respiratory disease and their informal carers. The study aims to assess the effects of carer inclusive pulmonary rehabilitation on preparedness for caregiving. A total of 120 patient-informal carer dyads will be randomly assigned to either carer inclusive pulmonary rehabilitation or standard pulmonary rehabilitation. In both groups, patients will undergo pulmonary rehabilitation. In the carer inclusive pulmonary rehabilitation group, informal carers will also participate in the education and psychosocial support sessions, which will be specifically designed to also address their needs. In the standard pulmonary rehabilitation group, informal carers will not participate in the pulmonary rehabilitation programme.

What you commit to

• Study type: Interventional
• Planned participants: 120
• From Sept 2026 to the primary completion date, Mar 2027
• 7 sites in 1 country
• Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them

Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.

Who cannot take part

Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.

Who the study is looking for

Age in the registry: 18 years to - · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers

Full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov

Sites (7)

Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.