Asthma-Related QOL Improved With Self-Taught Breathing Retraining

Self-taught breathing retraining is an effective, cost-efficient strategy for the improvement of quality of life (QOL) in patients with incompletely controlled asthma, according to the results of a recent study.

Although effective pharmacotherapy is available, asthma continues to impair QUO in most patients. Despite this, non-pharmacological approaches, including breathing retraining, are rarely utilized in standard care.
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In order to determine the effectiveness of digital self-guided breathing retraining within this patient population, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial including 655 patients, aged 16 to 70 years, with asthma who had received at least 1 anti-asthma medication in the previous year and had impaired asthma-related QOL. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either the self-guided intervention, 3 face-to-face breathing retraining sessions, or standard care, for 12 months.

Overall, Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire [AQLQ] scores at 12 months were significantly higher in the self-guided intervention group (mean 5.40) and the face-to-face group (mean 5.33) than in the usual care group (mean 5.12). No significant differences in FEV1 or fraction of exhaled nitric oxide were observed between the groups.

“Breathing retraining programs improve quality of life in patients with incompletely controlled asthma despite having little effect on lung function or airway inflammation. Such programs can be delivered conveniently and cost-effectively as a self-guided digital audiovisual program, so might also reduce health-care costs,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Bruton A, Lee A, Yardley L, et al. Physiotherapy breathing retraining for asthma: a randomised controlled trial [published online December 13, 2017]. Lancet Respir Med. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(17)30474-5.