Table 3.
Verbatim quotations from patients supporting themes.
| Theme | Quotations from patients |
|---|---|
| Major theme: Complementary management | |
| Subtheme: Time | Q8: ‘Just the fact that that (COPD) was concentrated on, which when I go to the GP I don't normally go just for that. That was good that that was really thorough, I was helped in that. I thought it was nice that somebody actually cared about that’. (Pt 4F 81 yo) |
| Subtheme: Different perspectives of COPD management | Q11: ‘And I thought, I'm not really sure I need that (PR) yet […] If I'm exercising and it's flaring up my lungs or something or I can't breathe properly or something, then I'll go back’. (Pt 2F 80 yo) |
| Q12: ‘I tend to think what I've got is probably typical of people my age. I think that living in a city with filthy air all your life, and getting to 64, you have to expect to have some impaired lung capacity, as well as just normal deterioration with age. I'm nowhere near needing treatment’. (Pt 5M 63 yo) | |
| Q13: ‘I felt better, because when you're not well, you don't what's going on. If you go to a place where they know what's going on, it's ‐ it makes you feel a little bit better’. (Pt 6F 50 yo) | |
| Major theme: Knowledge and skills | Q18: ‘It was very good from the point of view of – it gave me an insight into what I should be doing’. (Pt 1F 75 yo) |
| Q19: ‘I was very keen to start and I gradually increased my walking and some days I actually got up to 6000 steps a day […] I used to walk. I believe in walking and I enjoy it too, but I hadn't for quite a while’. (Pt 2F 80 yo) | |
| Q20: ‘(The physiotherapist) just gave me a bit more confidence that if I was going to get a cold, I wasn't going to be poorly for months and months and months by following the plan that she put in […], which was amazing’. (Pt 3F 58 yo) | |
| Major theme: Multidisciplinary teamwork | Q22: ‘I thought they (GP and PT) […] both seemed to know what was going on, and both were supporting each other really’. (Pt 3F 58 yo) |
| Q26: ‘I felt that there probably wasn't enough sort of communication between the physio and the GP’. (Pt 2F 80 yo) | |
| Major theme: Empowerment |
Q34: Interviewer: ‘It sounds to me since taking part in this, you've been able to self‐manage much more effectively’. Interviewee: ‘Definitely. Because someone's teaching me the things to do, which is good. Instead – because some doctors, they don't know as much as the COPD people’. (Pt 6F 50 yo) |
| Q35: ‘Yeah, it's become a habit. I know I have to huff and puff every […] day, and I know when I'm not well or I feel I'm getting a temperature, I have to look after myself that way’. (Pt 8F 87 yo) | |
| Q36: ‘I have kept it up, which is good […] But actually doing it for that many months, continually, and having this pedometer with me, I think that's made a big change because I've carried it on, and I still do it now. I don't do quite as much, but I still do it regularly now’. (Pt 3F 58 yo) | |
| Subtheme: Activation | Q38: ‘I'm fairly certain that I'm fitter than the average 64 year old […] I do a lot of stuff that a lot of 64 year olds couldn't do’. (Pt 5M 63 yo) |
| Q40: ‘I knew it before, to be perfectly honest. It was just getting the motivation and the fact that it was available and I took it that it happened’. (Pt 9F 77 yo) | |
| Subtheme: Perceived barriers | Q41: ‘Of course it was very bad time for doing a pilot study during the bushfires, I wasn't walking as much as I usually do but yeah […] basically the air was foul […] so it just wasn't a time for increasing one's steps’. (Pt 10M 69 yo) |
| Q42: ‘Because of my age and also my debilitating condition, so I've been really isolated […] I'm beginning to find it a bit trying’. (Pt 9F 77 yo) | |
| Q43: ‘You know, you're busy at work and things, and you just don't have time to go to the doctors, because you're not really dying’. (Pt 3F 58 yo) | |
Abbreviations: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; F, female; GP, general practitioner; M, male; PR, pulmonary rehabilitation; Pt, patient; PT, physiotherapist; Q, quotation; yo, years in age.