Abstract: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with high morbidity and mortality has become a major public health problem.Health education can improve the quality of life in patients with COPD, and reduce the number of exacerbations and cost due to repeated hospitalizations. There is no unified conclusion in content, manner, time for health education. There are large number of patients with COPD in China. Patients are generally poorly aware of the disease, and need various content and form of education, which can't meet for lack of knowledge and less focus on health education of medical workers. Many new progresses are emerging, such as the commonwealth of education, integrity and improvement of education, and enhancement of the educators.

Key words: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary rehabilitation, health education, review