Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Activating Primary Care Copd Patients With Multi-Morbidity (Apcom) Pilot Project: Study Protocol, Sameera Ansari, Hassan Hosseinzadeh, Sarah May Dennis, Nicholas Zwar

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), third leading cause of mortality worldwide,1 is primarily caused by cigarette smoking in Australia.2 COPD often occurs in the presence of multi-morbidity, which is the simultaneous occurrence of two or more chronic conditions; this is a growing concern in a health system focused on single-disease management.3 Around 80% of older Australians have multi-morbidity, average prevalence of chronic respiratory disease being 9.5%.4 A systematic review of COPD education programs suggests that equipping patients with self-management skills is as important as disease knowledge.5 Studies exploring positive effects of chronic disease-management interventions6 also underline the lack of studies …