Table 2.

Effects of interventions for management of COPD by nurses in community with estimated level of evidence score

Outcome*examined	Effect of intervention on outcome	Estimated level of evidence†
Patients' HRQOL:
Brief interventions	No difference detected when measured by disease specific instruments	1a#
Long term or intensive interventions	No difference detected (disease specific or generic instruments) at 12 month follow-up	1a#
Patients' psychological wellbeing: long term interventions	No difference detected	1a#
Impairment and disability: long term interventions	No difference detected in total SIP scores (or outside assessment)	1a# (2b)
No of COPD exacerbations: long term interventions	No difference detected	1a#
Pulmonary function: long term interventions	No difference detected	1a#
Mortality: long term interventions	No difference detected	1a
Emergency department attendance: long term interventions	May be reduced	1a#
No of outpatient visits: long term interventions	No difference detected	1a#
Patients' psychological wellbeing: brief interventions	No difference detected	2b
Patients' knowledge of COPD: long or brief interventions	May be increased	2b
Social support: brief interventions	No difference detected when measured by social support survey	2b
Unscheduled or respiratory readmission: brief interventions	No difference detected	2b
Patients' symptoms: long term interventions	No difference detected	1b-

HRQOL=health related quality of life; SIP=sickness impact profile.

^*Outcomes listed are not necessarily primary outcomes of trials.

^†Adapted from levels of evidence (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine)¹⁶: 1a=systematic review with homogeneity of randomised controlled trials, 1a# denotes that at least two randomised controlled trials report on the outcome, but we were unable to perform a statistical meta-analysis (see text for explanation), 1b-= single RCT with wide confidence interval or no confidence interval supplied, 2b= evidence from a single lower quality RCT.