| Summary: | Background: The primary goal of asthma management is to achieve and maintain control of the disease in order to prevent exacerbations. Evidence suggests that moderate intensity aerobic exercise training programme as well as incentive spirometry (IS) and diaphragmatic resistance training (DRT) improve asthma control and lung function. There is however no clear consensus regarding the comparative efficacy of DRT and IS on the cardiopulmonary parameters of patients with asthma.
Aim. This study was therefore aimed at comparing the effects of incentive spirometry and diaphragmatic resistance training on selected cardiopulmonary parameters in patients with asthma.
Methods: Forty-five (45) participants between the ages of 21 and 65 years diagnosed with asthma by physicians were recruited from the out-patient respiratory clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria and randomly assigned to three (3) groups (A, B and C) Group A received aerobic exercises and IS, Group B received aerobic exercise and DRT and Group C (control group) received only aerobic exercise for 6 weeks; 3 times a week.
Results: There were significant changes post-intervention in all the pulmonary parameters (p<0.05) of the three groups while there were no significant changes in any of the cardiovascular parameters (p>0.05). A comparison of the mean values of the cardiopulmonary parameters across the three groups 6th week post intervention show significant differences for FEV1 and PEFR (p=0.016 and p=0.030 respectively) while no significant differences existed in FVC and the cardiovascular variables (SBP and DBP) (p= 0.100, p= 0.739, p= 0.874 respectively). On post hoc analysis using the least significant difference (LSD), the significant difference observed in FEV1 was found between Groups B&C and A&B. Furthermore, the significant difference observed in PEFR was found between Group B&C.
Conclusion: Our findings show that the use of IS and DRT have beneficial effects in improving selected pulmonary parameters (FEV1, FVC, PEFR). However, the use of DRT is clinically more beneficial and is thus recommended to be a part of the intervention for patients with asthma.
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