A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

• Main Author: Robbins RA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2012-06-01
• Series: Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Subjects: BREATH trial; Education; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; emergency room visits; hospitalizations; mortality; research subject notification; self-management; stopping studies early
• Online Access: http://www.swjpcc.com/editorial/2012/6/9/a-little-knowledge-is-a-dangerous-thing.html

No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. An article entitled “A Comprehensive Care Management Program to Prevent Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospitalizations: A Randomized, Controlled Trial” from the VA cooperative studies program was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (1). This article describes the BREATH trial mentioned in a previous editorial (2). BREATH was a randomized, controlled, multi-center trial performed at 20 VA medical centers comparing an educational comprehensive care management program to guideline-based usual care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The intervention included COPD education during 4 individual and 1 group sessions, an action plan for identification and treatment of exacerbations, and scheduled proactive telephone calls for case management. After enrolling 426 (44%) of the planned total of 960 the trial was stopped because there were 28 deaths from all causes in the intervention group versus 10 in the usual care group (hazard ratio, 3.00; 95% CI, 1.46 to 6.17; p …