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. 2020 Nov:41:101260.
doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101260. Epub 2020 Nov 17.

Comparative effectiveness of breathing exercises in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Nicola Marotta  1 , Andrea Demeco  2 , Lucrezia Moggio  2 , Cinzia Marinaro  2 , Ilaria Pino  2 , Marianna Barletta  2 , Annalisa Petraroli  2 , Davide Pepe  2 , Francesco Lavano  2 , Antonio Ammendolia  2
Affiliations

Comparative effectiveness of breathing exercises in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Nicola Marotta et al. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Background and purpose: This study aims to determine the best choice of breathing exercises (BE) for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) via a network meta-analysis.

Methods: We searched randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with COPD investigating any BEs in MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. The effects of comparative treatment on the St. George Respiratory Questionnaire as the outcome were analysed and ranked according to a surface under the cumulative classification curve (SUCRA) analysis.

Results: The network meta-analysis included six RCTs involving 280 patients with four intervention groups, comprising control, diaphragmatic breathing training (DBT), yoga, and singing course. Performing SUCRA, we reported that yoga is 75% likely to be the best treatment available as DBT with 66%, instead of 35% for singing and 21% for control.

Conclusion: DBT and yoga seem to be the best choices for breathing exercises in people with COPD.

Keywords: Breathing exercises; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Diaphragmatic breathing; Network meta-analysis; Yoga.

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