Clinical evolution of COPD stage zero in smoker patients with non-pharmacological medical interventions

Abstract

Chronic cigarette smoking can cause respiratory symptoms, in addition to obstructive patterns.
However, the application of non-pharmacological measures or pulmonary rehabilitation, through breathing exercises and physical activity, can be applied curatively or preventively. The objective was to evaluate the clinical evolution of COPD stage zero in smokers with non-pharmacological interventions. An uncontrolled clinical trial was carried out, with a sample of 18 participants, out of a population of 43. Respiratory symptoms were evaluated; all this before and after applying non-pharmacological measures, which lasted 4 months. Respiratory symptoms such as cough, expectoration, dyspnea and wheezing were identified, also evaluating the number of symptoms, the McNemar test was performed to test the hypothesis and verify if COPD stage zero decreases after performing non-pharmacological interventions, said test does not was significant, indicating that the proportion of COPD stage zero smokers did not decrease significantly after applying the interventions; however, the number of symptoms decreased significantly, which was verified with the sign test, in which the p-value was less than 0.05 (0.028).
CONCLUSION: With the application of non-pharmacological measures, smoking patients improve many symptoms; however, it does not decrease the number of patients with COPD stage zero, so it is recommended that the interventions be prolonged to verify if the changes in stage zero are significant.