Exercise rehabilitation is recommended increasingly for patients with chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD). This study examined the effect of exercise and education
on 79 older adults (M age = 66.6 +/- 6.5 years; 53% female) with COPD, randomly assigned
to 10 weeks of (a) exercise, education, and stress management (EXESM; n = 29); (b)
education and stress management (ESM; n = 25); or (c) waiting list (WL; n = 25). EXESM
included 37 sessions of exercise, 16 educational lectures, and 10 weekly stress management
classes. ESM included only the 16 lectures and 10 stress management classes. Before
and after the intervention, assessments were conducted of physiological functioning
(pulmonary function, exercise endurance), psychological well-being (depression, anxiety,
quality of life), and cognitive functioning (attention, motor speed, mental efficiency,
verbal processing). Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance indicated
that EXESM participants experienced changes not observed among ESM and WL participants,
including improved endurance, reduced anxiety, and improved cognitive performance
(verbal fluency).