Structured Patient Education in Combination With Physical Exercise as Part of the Integrated Care to Chronically Ill Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Heart Failure and Stroke. A Randomized Controlled Intervention Trial.

Patients with chronically, long-lasting illness, have complex needs for treatment and care, which none of the service providers can fulfill on their own. Both patients and their relatives are in danger of experiencing severe lack of quality. Integrated care path programs are increasingly put into use. There is insufficient research-based documentation of the effect of such care paths.

The available documentation of different integrated care paths emphasizes early mobilization and discharge, rehabilitation in familiar surroundings, more effective communication and exchange of competence between the different service providers and educational self-management for patients as main elements in order to expect effect.

There are no studies that evaluate the effect of quality of life, functional skills and personal coping if group-based educational self management is combined with physical exercise and patients with different chronically illnesses participate in the same group.