Impact of Breathing exercise and Inhalation Technique on patient’s Quality of Life among Asthma and COPD patients

Abstract

Around 4 million deaths each year are caused by respiratory disorders worldwide. These diseases are a persistent threat to India as well; the number of people in India who suffer from COPD and asthma has been estimated to be 14.84 million and 17.23 million, respectively.In the present prospective and observational study, a total of 120 patients were enrolled, among 38 patients were diagnosed with Asthma and 82 were COPD patients. All the patients were trained with breathing exercises and inhalation techniques. The patients who have been prescribed with DPI and MDI inhalation devices were checked for their correct usage. The checklist score (DPI and MDI) for Asthma patients, before trainingwas 2.9 and after training was 8.1(<0.001***) and checklist score for COPD patients, before training was 2.8 and after training was 8.5(<0.001***).The results indicate that there is a significant increase (<0.001***) in correct usage after training session, which influences the inspiratory flow rate on Respirometer. Asthma Patient’s QoLwas measured by using ACT score, before training was 9.3 and after training was 19.7(<0.001***) and AQLQ score before training was 35.6 and after training was 74.1 (<0.001***). For COPD Patient’s QoLwas measured by using CAT score, before training was 33.2 and after training was 12.1(<0.001***) and MMRC score before training was 3.6 and after training was 1.4(<0.001***). In the present study breathing exercises increases inhalation capacity and hands on training for inhalation techniques improves the efficacy of drugs, together influences the patient’s Quality of Life (QoL) which reduces the number of days of hospitalization and socio-economic burden.