Methods
Design of the experiment
This was a randomized controlled trial with single blinded outcome assessors. The outcomes assessments were administered by blinded assessors who were ignorant of the treatment arm in which each subject was assigned. The assessments were conducted at four time points, including at admission to the study prior to randomization, the time of discharged from the pulmonary rehabilitation program, 3-month FU, and 6-
month FU. Institutional ethical approvals were sought from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the participating clinical setting before the study began. In addition, individual written and informed consents were sought from all participants before data collection commenced.