Effects of resistance breathing training on pulmonary rehabilitation and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Objective To observe the effects of resistance breathing training on the pulmonary rehabilitation and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) . Methods Totally 128 COPD patients admitted in Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology between June 2015 and July 2017 were selected by systematic random sampling and divided into two groups according to the admission time. The 64 patients admitted from June 2015 to June 2016 were divided into the control group, who received conventional nursing interventions for 6 months, while another 64 patients admitted between July 2016 and July 2017 were divided into the observation group, who received resistance breathing training for 6 months on the basis of conventional nursing interventions. The pulmonary function, including forced vital capacity (FVC) , percent FVC to the estimated value (FVC%) , forced expiratory volume for the first second (FEV1) , percent FEV1 to the estimated value (FEV1%) and changes of FEV1/FVC, were tested before and after interventions. The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-Quality of Life scale (COPD-QOL) was used to compare the quality of life between the two groups before and after interventions. Results There were no statistical differences in terms of pulmonary indicators between the two groups before interventions (P>0.05) ; however, FVC, FVC%, FEV1, FEV1% and FEV1/FVC rose after interventions, higher than those before interventions, and the observation group scored higher than the control group in terms of the indicators above post interventions (P 0.05) ; however, the scores in the dimensions of the quality of life and the total score after interventions were lower than those before interventions, and the observation group scored lower than the control group in terms of the indicators mentioned above (P<0.05) . The observation group scored higher than the control group in all dimensions of CD-RISC (P<0.01) . Conclusions Compared with traditional exercise (abdominal respiration and pursed lips breathing) , resistance breathing training is more aligned with the characteristics of respiratory physiology, which can effectively improve the pulmonary rehabilitation as well as the quality of life in COPD patients. Key words: Pulmonary disease, chronic obstructive; Quality of life; Resistance breathing training; Pulmonary rehabilitation