Effectiveness of Deep Breathing Exercises to Reduce the Difficulty in Breathing among Patients Admitted With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital Shimla. (H.P)

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is combinations of disorders which is not fully reversible. There are two disease conditions that occurs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. i.e. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Deep breathing exercises help to enhance the respiratory functions by improving ventilation, strengthen respiratory muscles, and increase endurance. Objectives (i) To assess the difficulty in breathing among patient admitted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ii) To demonstrate deep breathing exercises to patient admitted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (iii) To evaluate the effectiveness of deep breathing exercises among patients admitted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (iv) To find out the association of breathing difficulty with their selected demographic variables. Material and Methods: A quasi-experimental research study was done among 60 COPD patients selected by purposive sampling technique. Standardized Modified Borg Dyspnoea scale was used for the data collection. Breathing assessment was measured in the five categories: Mild, Moderate, Severe, very severe and maximal breathlessness. Results The study findings showed that in pre-test, experimental group majority of 83.3% of COPD patients had severe, 19% had moderate and 6.7% had mild breathlessness. In pre-test control group 73.3% of COPD patients had severe and 26.7 % had moderate breathlessness. In post-test, experimental group majority of 23.3% of COPD patients had severe, 63.3% had moderate and 13.3% had mild breathlessness. In post-test control group 76.7% of COPD patients had severe, 20% had moderate and 3.3% had mild breathlessness. Conclusion The findings of the study indicated that breathing difficulty is reduced after the administration of deep breathing exercises to the COPD patients.