A study to assess the effectiveness of breathing exercises on respiratory symptoms and functional ability among asthmatic patients in a selected primary health center, Chennai

Abstract

Breathing exercises plays a major role in reducing asthmatic symptoms among asthmatic patients. Asthma is a respiratory disease that affects the lungs. It is characterized by airway inflammation, obstruction, and Hyperactivity to irritants. The symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing. Diaphragmatic breathing helps to increase the functional ability of a patient with shortness of breath. Therefore, the present study was to assess the effectiveness of breathing exercises on respiratory symptoms and functional ability of asthmatic patients. A one-group pretest and posttest experimental design was selected for the study. 30 patients were selected by a simple random sampling technique. Modified Borg dyspnea scale and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire with standardized activities (AQLQ) were used to assess the level of asthmatic symptoms and the functional ability among asthmatic patients in a selected primary health center, Chennai. Breathing exercises session has been given through video-assisted teaching and demonstration to the selected samples for 30 minutes which was followed by the post test. The study findings showed the pre- test on functional ability and asthmatic symptoms, mean score was 61.0 and 4.93 with SD 5.71 and 1.39 and pos test mean score was 0.95 and 206.07 with SD 0.84 and 19.39 .The paired