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Introduction: Although rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is evidence-based and recommended in all international guidelines, it is not widespread in Denmark. In this paper we report the results of a rehabilitation programme for patients with severe COPD introduced at Hvidovre Hospital. Materials and methods: The rehabilitation programme lasted for seven weeks. It included individually prescribed aerobic training plus education about medication, relaxation techniques, nutrition and other topics of relevance to patients with COPD. We measured the patients' endurance using a shuttle walking test and their health-related quality of life with the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) both before and after participation in the programme. Results: The first 100 patients who completed the programme consisted of 66 women and 34 men. Their mean FEV1 was 32% of the predicted value. The average improvement in the endurance shuttle walking test was from 2.9 minutes to 4.8 minutes, corresponding to 65%. The average improvement in the SGRQ score was 3.1. The patients who participated during the spring, summer and autumn experienced greater improvement compared than those who participated during the winter, but otherwise we could not identify any significant predictors of a favorable response to rehabilitation. Discussion: Our results confirm that a low-budget rehabilitation programme can significantly improve the functional capability and health status of patients with severe COPD.

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