Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part A (2023)

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most common chronic lung disease. Patient mainly complain of dyspnea, tiredness, decreased exercise tolerance and decreased physical activity (PA), which leads to a poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Upper limb exercises with breathing maneuver improves dyspnea, lung functions and quality of life. Upper limb induced breathing exercise in reverse pattern may also have a positive effect on dyspnea, lung functions and quality of life.
Objective: The main aim of this clinical study is to find out the effect of upper limb induced breathing exercise in reverse pattern on dyspnea, pulmonary function and quality of life in COPD patients.
Settings and Study Design: An experimental study conducted on COPD patients, selected from out- patient department of respiratory medicine, MYH Hospital, Indore (M.P.)
Materials and Methods: 49 COPD patients were participated in the experimental study, underwent treatment duration for 6 weeks after giving their informed consent. The age range 40- 50 years were allocated in two groups – group A and group B, in group A there were 26 patients participated and group B there were 23 patients participated in the study. Group A patients received upper limb induced breathing exercise in reverse pattern and group B patients received upper limb induced breathing exercise in normal pattern. Both groups received conventional physiotherapy. The pre and post evaluation were measured between inter and intra group and compared the groups with each other.
Data Analysis: Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used for data analysis in this study. Data with p-value below 0.05 were considered to be significant. Independent, paired t-test were used to analyse the variance between pre and post training period.
Result: After 6 weeks intervention, there is a significant effect of upper limb induced breathing exercise in reverse pattern with conventional physiotherapy on quality of life in COPD patients and the result shows that the quality of life significantly improves in Group A but it was insignificant in group B. Mean value of quality of life in post evaluation of Group A is 1.04 and Group B is 1.28. There is a significant difference between mean. Calculated t-value is 2.13 which is significant at degree of freedom 47 and 0.05 level of significance because calculated t-value is greater than tabulated t-value 2.05. However, the FEV1 and FVC both significantly improves in both groups but more improved in group B. Dyspnea and FEV1/FVC ratio was insignificant in both groups.
Conclusion: The result indicates Upper limb induced breathing exercise in reverse pattern with conventional physiotherapy is more effective than breathing exercise in normal pattern with conventional physiotherapy on Quality of life in COPD patients. The other parameters like FEV1 and FVC significantly improved in both groups. There was no significant improvement on dyspnea and FEV1/FVC ratio. So, it could be considered as a good strategy to improve quality of life in COPD.