Deep and slow breathing for 5 minutes significantly reduced perceived state anxiety and increased high-frequency heart rate variability in both young and older adults.
Does one 5-minute session of deep and slow breathing improve physiological stress (HRV) and perceived state anxiety in healthy young and older adults?
A single 5-minute session of deep and slow breathing effectively reduces state anxiety and increases vagal tone, with older adults showing a significantly greater increase in parasympathetic activity than younger adults.
Absolute Event Rate: 23.44% vs 26.95%
p-value: p=<0.001
Anxiety is recognized as a major health issue and is quite prevalent among older adults. An efficient way to manage anxiety is abdominal breathing. Breathing exercises seem to reduce anxiety and to increase parasympathetic activity assessed by HRV indexes. Yet, the effect of abdominal breathing on physiological stress (HRV) and anxiety in older adults remains poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test the effects of deep and slow breathing (DSB, low inhale/exhale ratio) on physiological stress and anxiety in older adults (n = 22) in comparison with younger ones (n = 25). DSB increased significantly HFpower and reduced state anxiety in both younger and older adults. Interestingly, the increased in HF power was significantly higher among older adults than younger ones. As expected, the ratio inhale/exhale being not equal, RMSSD did not increase following DSB. Thus, we provide evidence suggesting that DSB is more beneficial to older adults than younger ones to restore vagal outflow. Despite future work being required, those results provide relevant clinical application leads to manage state anxiety among older adults and to promote successfull aging.
Magnon et al. (Wed,) conducted a other in Anxiety and physiological stress (n=47). Deep and slow breathing (DSB) vs. Baseline (Pre-DSB) was evaluated on Perceived state anxiety (SAI score) (p=<0.001). Deep and slow breathing for 5 minutes significantly reduced perceived state anxiety and increased high-frequency heart rate variability in both young and older adults.