Abstract
Pulmonary rehabilitation is the gold standard in the management of patients with chronic respiratory diseases. However, despite the numerous biopsychosocial benefits of this therapeutic intervention, inter-individual differences in response have been observed. Indeed, 30 to 50% of the patients do not show a clinically significant improvement in their health status at the end of the program, while 50 to 85% of them fail to adopt and maintain a physically active lifestyle in the long term, including a regular physical activity and a low level of sedentary behaviors. The identification of the factors involved in this heterogeneity of response is a major issue. A large body of research from the field of health psychology emphasizes that personality traits, defined by the Five Factor Model, are associated with health behaviors and evolution in health status. However, these associations have never been investigated in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, in the context of pulmonary rehabilitation.Based on a research program composed of three studies, this thesis aimed at examining the role played by personality traits i) in the evolution of health status of patients with chronic respiratory diseases during a pulmonary rehabilitation program, ii) in the evolution of physical activity and sedentary behaviors in general and pathological populations.The results of these study, highlight that personality traits, in particular openness to experience, are involved in the evolution of patients’ quality of life during a pulmonary rehabilitation program (study 1). Moreover, if the five personality traits contribute independently to physical activity change in general population (study 2), these patterns of association were not found in patients with chronic respiratory diseases. In contrast, the combination of a lower conscientiousness and higher neuroticism is a predictor of increased sedentary behaviors in the 6 months following rehabilitation (study 3).This doctoral dissertation offers a better understanding of the psychological factors involved in inter-individual differences concerning the response of pulmonary rehabilitation and suggests that taking into account the personality traits of patients with chronic respiratory diseases in clinical practice is a promising prospect for optimizing the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation.