Prevention as a prominent self-management strategy in men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A qualitative study

The aim of this study is to explore the strategies used by male patients with COPD to prevent the exacerbation of the disease. This grounded theory study as a part of a more extensive research was conducted in Iran from January 2019 to October 2022. The study participants included patients with COPD, their family caregivers and pulmonologists. The participants were recruited using purposeful and theoretical sampling. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed by the Strauss and Corbin 2008 data analysis method. The finding showed that male patients with COPD use different strategies to prevent exacerbation. These strategies have consisted of limitation (physical activity limitation, exercise limitation, recreational limitation, work limitation, smoking limitation, social relations limitation, environmental limitation and corona precautions), improvement (healthy diet, simple exercises, emotional state improvement, social relations improvement, adjusting the environment and controlled activity), organization (medication adherence, following orders) and support (transfer to others, others assistance, others observance). The findings of this study can lead to a better and deeper understanding of the prevention of exacerbation in male patients with COPD and adds to the growing body of knowledge about COPD self-management.