Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Exercise Tolerance and Quality of Life in IPF Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Methods. Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chongqing VIP (CQVIP), Wanfang Data, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed) were comprehensively searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated the effects of PR for IPF patients were included. Literature selection and data extraction were conducted by two review authors independently. The Cochrane Collaboration’s Risk of Bias tool and RevMan software (version 5.3) were used to evaluate the quality of studies and conduct statistical analysis, respectively. Results. Seven studies (190 participants) were included. PR had a significant effect on six-minute walk distance (6MWD) (MD:48.60; 95%CI: 29.03 to 68.18; Z=4.87, P