Personalizing Self-Management Interventions in COPD – Looking Beyond One-Size-Fits-All

Owing to the growing number of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is a high demand for evidence-based self-management interventions to manage care and promote behavioral change to improve health outcomes. COPD self-management interventions are structured, but personalized and often multi-component, with goals of motivating, engaging, and supporting patients to positively adapt their health behavior(s) and develop skills for better disease management. As COPD is a heterogeneous disease, not all intrapulmonary and extrapulmonary components characterizing COPD are present in each individual at any given time. Consequently, there is a diversity in individual patient needs, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach for COPD care and management. Personalization of self-management interventions in COPD is therefore imperative to increase the probability that patients will actually improve their health behavior and strive for optimal disease management. In this editorial, we highlight important components of effective self-management interventions in COPD: 1) a patient-tailored approach; 2) adherence; 3) digital technology; and 4) implementation.