Nutritional supplementation for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND

Low body weight in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with an impaired pulmonary status, reduced diaphragmatic mass, lower exercise capacity and higher mortality rate when compared to adequately nourished individuals with this disease. Nutritional support may therefore be a useful part of their comprehensive care.

OBJECTIVES

To conduct a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to clarify whether nutritional supplementation (caloric supplementation for at least 2 weeks) improved anthropometric measures, pulmonary function, respiratory muscle strength and functional exercise capacity in patients with stable COPD.

SEARCH STRATEGY

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified from the Cochrane Airways Group register of RCTs, a hand-search of abstracts presented at international meetings and consultation with experts. Searches are current as of March 2004.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Two reviewers independently selected trials for inclusion, assessed quality and extracted the data.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Within each trial and for each outcome, we calculated an effect size. The effect sizes were then pooled by a random-effects model. Homogeneity among the effect sizes was also tested.

MAIN RESULTS

Eleven studies recruiting 352 participants met the inclusion criteria. Eight papers were considered as high quality. Two studies were double-blinded. For each of the outcomes studied, the effect of nutritional support was small: the 95% confidence intervals around the pooled effect sizes all included zero. The effect of nutritional support was homogeneous across studies.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

Nutritional support had no significant effect on anthropometric measures, lung function or exercise capacity in patients with stable COPD.