Assessment for Efficacy of Additional Breathing Exercises Over Improvement in Health Impairment Due to Asthma Assessed using St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire

BACKGROUND: Breathing exercises have been described to be useful in asthma management by few researchers in the past. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of breathing exercises (Pranayamas) added to regular optimal medications in asthma patients in improving health impairment using St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). METHODS: Sixty stable asthma patients (34 females) receiving optimal treatment at our institute for 3 months or more as per the Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines were included in the study. They performed seven breathing exercises under supervision at yoga center of our institute for 3 months in addition to their regular medications. SGRQ (1 month symptoms version) was used to assess the quality of life before and after breathing exercises intervention for following subsets: Symptom score, activity score, impact score, and total score to assess the efficacy of breathing exercises. RESULTS: Of 60 asthma patients, 34 were females and 26 were males, and their mean age was 25.45 ± 5.41 years. Their baseline spirometric values were as follow: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) - 2.492 ± 0.358 L and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) - 283.82 ± 51.12 L/min. The SGRQ scores after breathing exercises intervention decreased from 45.98 ± 5.61 to 38.78 ± 4.92 for symptom subset, from 15.45 ± 3.33 to 12.34 ± 2.39 for activity subset, from 17.95 ± 4.22 to 12.12 ± 3.82 for impact subset, and from 25.83 ± 8.31 to 19.20 ± 7.09 for total scores. All these reductions were statistically highly significant (P < 0.001). Decrease in symptoms, activity, and total SGRQ scores each was significantly correlated with FEV(1), FEV(1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio, and PEFR; decrease in impact score was significantly related only with FEV(1)/FVC ratio. CONCLUSIONS: Breathing exercises significantly decreased all component scores of SGRQ, signifying a global improvement in health impairment due to asthma; this improvement was in addition to that was achieved with optimal asthma therapy alone.