Who is home oxygen for? What the research says
Oxygen is a prescribed treatment for low blood oxygen. It is not a general treatment for feeling short of breathe. The research explains why.
The two early trials
Two trials around 1980 shaped how oxygen is prescribed. Both studied people with chronic lung disease whose blood oxygen was already seriously low.
- A US trial of 203 people compared oxygen used around the clock with oxygen used only at night. Over about 19 months, deaths were roughly twice as common in the night-only group.
- A UK trial of 87 very unwell people compared oxygen for at least 15 hours a day with no oxygen. Over five years, 19 of 42 people on oxygen died, compared with 30 of 45 people without it.
Both trials were small and both studied people with severe low oxygen. They do not tell us about anyone else.
The trial that found no benefit
In 2016 a larger US trial followed 738 people with COPD whose oxygen was only moderately low, at rest or during exercise. Long-term oxygen made no difference to how long people lived or how soon they went to hospital. It also made no consistent difference to quality of life, lung function or how far people could walk.
What the local guideline says
The 2024 guideline from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand recommends long-term oxygen for people with chronic lung disease whose oxygen is consistently and significantly low at rest. It does not support it for COPD with only moderately low oxygen, or for low oxygen only at night. It also says that when blood oxygen is not low, oxygen eases breathlessness no better than air.
What this means for you
Whether oxygen is right for you depends on your own blood oxygen measurements, and your prescriber makes that call. This is why Breathe supplies oxygen equipment on prescription only. A portable machine does not change whether you need oxygen. It changes where you can go while you use it.
This page is general information, not medical advice. Your doctor or nurse knows your situation; please talk to them before changing any treatment.
Sources
- Nocturnal Oxygen Therapy Trial Group. Continuous or nocturnal oxygen therapy in hypoxemic chronic obstructive lung disease. Annals of Internal Medicine, 1980. doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-93-3-391
- Medical Research Council Working Party. Long term domiciliary oxygen therapy in chronic hypoxic cor pulmonale complicating chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The Lancet, 1981. PubMed 6110912
- Long-Term Oxygen Treatment Trial Research Group. A randomized trial of long-term oxygen for COPD with moderate desaturation. New England Journal of Medicine, 2016. doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1604344
- McDonald CF and others. Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand clinical practice guideline on adult home oxygen therapy. Respirology, 2024. thoracic.org.au
- Healthify. Home oxygen therapy. healthify.nz
Checked November 2026. Airline and official pages change, so follow the links for the current wording.