About UPTURN
​Why are we doing this study?
In England around 80,000 people live with COPD, which causes breathlessness, a persistent cough, and wheezing. Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is a treatment for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It involves supervised exercise and education to help manage symptoms. Before starting PR, patients go through an assessment to see if they are a good fit for the programme and to fine-tune their treatment. Attending this assessment is a strong indicator that they will continue with the PR programme.
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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. UPTURN aims to address these issues, working to co-design a support package in partnership with healthcare professionals, people living with COPD and their families.
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Some ethnic minority groups have higher rates of COPD than others and have low attendance at PR assessment. There can be many reasons for this. The UPTURN study will start by working with people living with COPD from the Bangladeshi and African and Caribbean communities and their families, to understand their specific questions and concerns about PR. ​​
What is our aim?
We aim to create a service to help more people attend their PR assessment. The service will be designed to support attendance for all eligible patients. To address health inequalities, we are involving people from communities often under-represented in research because of language barriers, economic challenges, or both.We’re also talking to healthcare professionals to find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to providing PR, especially for people from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds. This will help us develop better, more personalised support to increase PR attendance. The plan will be tested in a clinical trial, and if it works well, we hope to make it a standard part of the PR process across NHS England.
​​For more information about UPTURN, click below: ​​
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust​​​
Who are we?
The UPTURN team comprises researchers from various UK institutions, including the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (sponsor), Universities of Cambridge, Leicester, York, Norwich Clinical Trials Unit, University College London and King’s College London. Patient and public contributors, including representatives from ethnic minority communities, are central to the research team. A key part of the programme will be building community relationships and focusing on what matters most to patients. The team will also work with community researchers to help ensure that ethnic minority patients and carers are included in the study. Click here to learn more about the team.
Current Progress
​In the first part of our project, we will work together with underserved communities to design the intervention and then test it to see if it works in practices. This phase will continue until the end of 2025. Right now, we are in the process of designing the intervention (WP1a).
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For the intervention co-design (WP1a) our aims are to:
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Co-design an intervention to encourage all eligible people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to attend pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) assessment​
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Support the intervention design with behaviour change theory​
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Include cultural adaptations to support engagement of people from ethnic minority communities facing inequities​ (differences in opportunity)
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To address health inequities, we are working closely with people with COPD from Bangladeshi, African and Caribbean communities, to understand the barriers they face to engage with PR. This will help us customise the UPTURN intervention to their needs. We are also involving healthcare professionals involved in providing and referring people with COPD to PR.
We are currently recruiting the following participants to get involved in the study:
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People living with COPD from Bangladeshi, African or Caribbean heritage and their carers
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Healthcare professionals involved in PR referral and design and delivery of PR services. Including: practice nurses (respiratory specialists and non-specialists), physiotherapists, GPs, PR providers, and service commissioners
UPTURN's project plan
