A Pilot Study on Aerobic Exercise and Inspiratory Muscle Training in Reducing Dyspnoea among Heart Failure Patients

Heart failure is a common, costly, disabling and deadly condition. Inspiratory muscles of patients with congestive heart failure are weaker than those of normal persons. This weakness may contribute to the dyspnea and limit exercise capacity in these patients. An experimental study has been carried out to determine the effectiveness of aerobic exercise training and inspiratory muscle training programmes on improvement of inspiratory muscle strength and reduction of dyspnea among heart failure patients in selected cardiac rehabilitation centers of Dakshina Kannada District. The results shows that there is a significant decrease in the mean dyspnea scores after aerobic exercise training 2.06 (pless than0.05), inspiratory muscle training 2.04 (pless than0.05) and combained training 2.03 (pless than0.05) programmes by using Wilcoxon signed rank test value. The study concluded that The respiratory muscles can be trained for both strength and endurance and thereby severity of dyspnoea can be reduced among heart failure patients.