EFFECTS OF BUTEYKO BREATHING TECHNIQUE AND CONVENTIONAL PHYSICAL THERAPY IN ADULT BRONCHIAL ASTHMA: A RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRAIL

OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of Buteyko Breathing Technique (BBT) and Conventional Physical Therapy (Conventional PT) for improving pulmonary functions and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in the management of chronic bronchial asthma. STUDY DESIGN & SAMPLING TECHNIQUE It is a Randomized Control Trial. Patients were selected through Simple Random Sampling. STUDY SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 24 patients diagnosed as chronic bronchial asthma were recruited from the outpatient department, pulmonary clinics of tertiary care hospital. INTERVENTION Subjects were randomly assigned into two groups, BBT (n=12) and conventional PT (n=12). FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC ratio were measured at the start and end of the treatment through MIR Spirolab-III. HRQoL was also measured using St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) at start and end of treatment session. RESULTS No statistically significant changes were observed in FVC, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio in BBT as well as in Conventional PT whereas significant changes in HRQoL through SGRQ is revealed in BBT (p <0.05). CONCLUSION BBT is found to be more effective in assessing HRQoL through SGRQ, whereas a larger sample size is required in patients with chronic bronchial asthma to evaluate the effectiveness of BBT as no significant difference was shown in the study.