EFFECTIVENESS OF THORACIC CORE CONDITIONING USING STRETCH POLE FOR COMMUNITY ELDERLY WITH MODERATE COPD- A SINGLE BLIND STUDY

Back ground and introduction: Thoracic Core conditioning exercises are found to be effective in increasing chest expansion in healthy middle aged individuals. The purpose is to find the short term effect of thoracic core conditioning using stretch pole on improving thoracic expansion, intensity of perceived exertion of breathlessness and functional performance for community elderly with moderate COPD. Method: A Single blinded experimental study design, 40 subjects with moderate COPD randomized 20 subjects into each Study and Control group. Study group received thoracic core conditioning exercises with stretch pole while Control group received thoracic core conditioning exercises without stretch pole for one week. Subjects were followed up after one week post intervention where no intervention was given during follow up week. Results: Analysis using RMANOVA found that there was a statistically significant (p