The UPTURN study

Why this research is needed

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common lung condition where air cannot get out of the lungs easily because the airflow is obstructed. In England around 80,000 people live with COPD, which causes breathlessness, a persistent cough, and wheezing.

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a treatment programme of exercise and education designed for people living with COPD. Unfortunately, up to one third of COPD patients do not attend their initial PR assessment or fail to take up the programme, and therefore never get the benefit of the treatment. Some ethnic minority groups have higher rates of COPD than others and low attendance at PR assessment. There can be many reasons for this.

Co-designing a support package 

The UPTURN study will work with COPD patients, their carers and healthcare professionals and a team of designers, to co-design a support package to encourage people to attend PR assessment. Part of this work focuses on engaging people from Bangladeshi, Black African and Black Caribbean communities to ensure we understand the particular barriers they face.

This new support package will be tested in a clinical trial to find out if people receiving this support are more likely to take up and benefit from the PR programme compared to those who don’t.

Supporting effective behaviour change

The CBC team are developing the theory of change for the co-designed support package. This involves engagement with healthcare professionals, patients and carers to explore their perspectives and experience, as well as desk research to identify the barriers and enablers to behaviour change. The Behaviour Change Wheel methodology will inform the design of the intervention components. A key part of the programme is community relationships and focusing on what matters most to patients, particularly those facing the greatest health inequities. Our team are working closely with community engagement researchers to help ensure that ethnic minority patients and carers are supported to take part in the study.

Working in partnership

The support package will be delivered in local services across England by UPTURN’s charity partner Asthma and Lung UK.

The UPTURN team comprises researchers around the UK, including from Cambridge University Hospital, University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Univesity of Leicester, University of York, NHS Somerset, University of East Anglia Norwich Clinical Trials Unit, and University College London. Patient and public contributors, including representatives from ethnic minority communities, are central to the research team.