Culturally Adapted Floor-to-Stand Exercises for COPD: A Quasi-Experimental Study

OBJECTIVE: Conventional pulmonary rehabilitation remains difficult to access in many low-resource settings because of practical, geographic, and sociocultural barriers.Accordingly, floor-to-stand exercises (FSE) were developed as an equipment-free program centered on repeated floor-to-stand transitions that are commonly performed in daily life in North Africa.The main objective of the present study was to estimate program completion rates, identify predictors of non-completion, and describe clinical, functional, and peripheral muscle outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) outpatients with documented difficulty rising from the floor. MATERIAL AND METHODS:In this prospective, quasi-experimental pilot study, COPD outpatients participated in the 9-week progressive FSE program.Completion was defined as ≥22 floor-to-stand transitions/day during weeks 7-9.Assessments were performed at baseline and at day 63, and outcomes were compared between completers and non-completers.RESULTS: Fifteen COPD outpatients were included; the completion rate was 46.7% (7/15).Completers had lower baseline Borg CR10 scores (6.0 vs. 7.5; P = 0.047) and higher 6-minute walk distance (330 vs. 261 m; P = 0.037).On day 63, completers improved on the modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (-2.0;P = 0.015), Borg CR10 (-3.0;P = 0.011), and COPD assessment test (-8.0;P = 0.008), whereas non-completers improved only on the Borg CR10 (-2.0;P = 0.020).Functional tests and peripheral muscle outcomes showed no consistent changes overall. CONCLUSION:The FSE was feasible and safe in this study, with improvements primarily in symptoms and disease impact.Larger controlled studies are needed to confirm the effectiveness and optimize adherence.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.govNCT07277855.