Publication:

The effect of pursed lip breathing exercise against decrease of breathing levels in chronic obstruction pulmonary disease

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease that is a problem throughout the world where its prevalence, morbidity and mortality are increasing every year. The high number of COPD visits is due to persistent and progressive shortness of breath complaints. Existing pharmacological therapies for COPD have not shown improvement in the long-term decline in pulmonary function that is a hallmark of COPD. It is very necessary for companion therapy that is non-pharmacological treatment is expected to be able to complete pharmacological treatment in reducing shortness of breath of COPD patients with pursed-lip breathing exercise.

Methods This study uses a quassy experiment design with two group pretest and posttes design approaches. This study was in obstructive pulmonary disease patients in the lung hospital in West Sumatra with an intervention group of 16 and a control of 16 respondents. Data analysis using univariate and bivariate using independent t-test statistics.

Results The results showed the average decrease in shortness of breath in the control group without pretest 3.19 and posttest 2.56 in the pretest pursed lip breathing exercise intervention group 3.19 and posttest performed 1.69. Test statistic p-value 0.026.

Conclusions There is an effect of pursed lip breathing exercise on reducing the level of shortness of breath in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.