FRESH AIR international research programme

Plymouth University is leading on several projects within the FRESH AIR programme including the pulmonary rehabilitation projects in remote settings, starting in mountain villages in Crete with aims to progress to remote high altitude nomadic communities in Kyrgyz Republic and rural communities in Vietnam.

There is also a project evaluating an education programme for midwives in rural Uganda to deliver improving pregnancy outcomes and child health in the first six months of life. The project teaches people about the dangers of biomass smoke from cooking fires, from kerosene lamps and other sources, including tobacco smoking. 

Dr Rupert Jones is leading a team of Plymouth researchers within an international collaboration in a range of studies addressing the problem of chronic lung disease in resource-poor settings.

Who is involved?

• Plymouth University, UK
  Rupert Jones (PUPSMD)
  Jill Pooler (PUPSMD)
  Andy Barton (Research Design Service)
  Michael Hyland (School of Psychology)
  Siobhan Creanor (PUPSMD)
• Makerere University, Uganda
  Dr Bruce Kirenga and team
• University of Groningen, Holland
  Dr Frederik van Gemert
  Prof Niels Chavannes

Project one

Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and associated risk factors in Uganda (FRESH AIR Uganda): A prospective cross-sectional observational study

Complete and published in Lancet Global Health 2014.

Summary

In sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the damage to respiratory health caused by biomass (wood, charcoal or grass) smoke and tobacco smoke. We assessed the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and related risk factors in a rural region of Uganda.

We undertook a prospective observational cross-sectional study in rural Masindi, Uganda. We randomly selected people above the age of 30 years from 30 villages. We trained local health-care workers, asked validated questionnaires and administered breathing tests (spirometry) to participants. We defined COPD as FEV1:FVC less than the lower limit of normal. We calculated prevalence of COPD and tested its association with risk factors.

Between 13 April and 14 Aug 2012, we invited 620 people to participate, of whom 588 provided acceptable spirometry and were analysed.

• mean age was 45 years; 297 (51 per cent) were women
  
• 546 (93 per cent) were exposed to biomass smoke, many for all their lives
  
• the prevalence of COPD was 16 per cent. Prevalence was highest in people aged 30 - 39 years
  
• 44 per cent of men with COPD were current smokers, 24 per cent were former smokers
  
• 8 per cent of women were current smokers, 18 per cent were former smokers
  
• mean Clinical COPD Questionnaire score was 0·81, mean Medical Research Council dyspnoea score was 1·33; 30 per cent of 95 patients had had one or more exacerbations past 12 months
  
• COPD was associated with wheeze and being a former smoker.

While medication may improve lung function and symptoms in some patients, for those with irreversible damage pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the only treatment and can be very effective. PR is a programme of exercise, education and self-management. PR involves existing local resources such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and clinic staff. PR allows patients to help each other and themselves, without major capital outlay or equipment.

We are running a development project in which we set up and ran a PR programme in Mulago Hospital, Kampala. A multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and others have run five groups with around 40 patients with chronic lung damage secondary to pulmonary TB. Preliminary results confirm that the programme is feasible and acceptable to patients and to the hospital staff at all levels. Major improvements were seen in exercise capacity and health status. In many patients the experience was life changing, allowing severely incapacitated patients who were entirely dependent on others to now function normally in work and social activities.

The objective of the development project is to develop PR to a point where it may be deployed widely in East Africa and assessed in a large trial.

Funding

MRC Wellcome and DFID Joint Global Health Trials £162,880.69

The future

Our pilot study is showing that in small numbers of patients, unexpected improvements in chest pains, haemoptysis and night sweats occurred and this may open the door to research into physiotherapy approaches to post-TB morbidity, a subject receiving little attention in TB research and guidelines.

If the development study is successful we will progress to a major roll-out study through East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia). The rehab programme is also an element within the Horizon 2020 funded programme of research – Fresh Air.

A patient's story (provided with consent)

"Two years ago our patient, an 18 year old woman, developed pulmonary TB. She became unwell with cough, fever, haemoptysis, breathlessness and weight loss. She had TB treatment but did not recover properly as she suffered with recurrent infection in cavitating lesions and was given repeated courses of antibiotics. These made little difference; she remained weak, tired, unable to attend school, very breathless, could only walk short distances and could not carry anything heavy."

"She had severe chest pains, especially at night. She became very depressed and worried for the future. Eventually she saw Dr WK in 2013, who referred her to the pulmonary rehabilitation programme and she attended throughout. She is now back to normal, attending school, and feels strong again "I have so strong muscles and bones". She has gained weight, her chest pains and haemoptysis have gone. She was so pleased that she came especially to thank me. She wants to be a doctor."

Project three

A project to develop awareness of lung health and promote practices to prevent lung disease in rural Uganda. The group will train community health workers (CHWs), create educational materials and utilise technology. Results and knowledge learned from the project will be shared in an effort to build capacity for stop smoking interventions in other low and middle income countries (LMICs). The IPCRG also plans to contribute data from the project to the body of evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions in LMICs.

Specifically, the project aims to:

1. Develop a cascading and sustainable ‘train the trainers’ module that will be used to train Masindi district community health workers (CHWs) and health care workers in improving lung health.

2. Create with CHWs educational materials that they can use with their local communities.

3. Train CHWs and health care workers in supporting people to stop using tobacco through interventions that are adapted to the local cultural and economic conditions and are feasible to implement in the context of Masindi District.

4. Provide on-going support to CHWs using mobile telephone technology.

5. Integrate these activities into a larger IPCRG supported programme to improve lung health.

6. Identify and share the learning from the project using the Global Bridges network and the IPCRG knowledge platform in order to build capacity for interventions that facilitate stopping tobacco use in other low and middle income countries (LMICs).

7. Contribute to developing the evidence-base on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions to facilitate stopping tobacco use in LMICs.

1. To identify the specific factors that influence the implementation of evidenced-based interventions in the prevention and treatment of non-communicable lung diseases in community settings in four countries representing very different contexts: the Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Uganda and Greece. (WP3)

2. To explore which awareness-raising approaches are most effective in motivating behaviour change in tobacco consumption and HAP exposure and to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of HAP reduction interventions in selected communities in these countries. (WP4)

3. To provide access to smoking cessation support by adapting successful evidence-based Very Brief Advice (VBA) interventions that will be delivered by healthcare workers in these countries. (WP5)

4. To test the feasibility and acceptability of methods for diagnosing COPD using innovative spirometry. (WP5)

5. To test the feasibility and acceptability of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) as a low-cost treatment for obstructive lung disease. (WP5)

6. To test how to best reduce children’s respiratory symptoms and the risk of lung damage by exploring interventions designed to raise awareness of the damaging effects of exposure to tobacco smoke and HAP during pregnancy and infancy and to improve diagnosis and treatment of children aged under-5 presenting to primary care with respiratory symptoms. (WP6)

7. To generate new knowledge, innovation and scalable models that ensure equitable access and to support their implementation through proactive dissemination within the four countries, regionally and internationally. (WP3 to WP7)