The Effect of Pursed-Lip Breathing on Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients of Functional Capacity Assessed by Six Minute Walk Test

Abstract

The amount of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients in Indonesia is estimated continues to grow and currently it has reached 4.8 million patients in which it may create socio-economy burden because of decreased physical functional capacity. Physical functional capacity evaluation on COPD patients can be assessed by six-minute walk test where it can also assess changes in functional capacity after the intervention, such as pulmonary rehabilitation program. The aim of this research is to find out the effect of pulmonary rehabilitation with Pursed-lip breathing (PLB) technique for 4 weeks toward distances achievements through six-minute walk test on COPD patients who receive standard therapy. This method used experimental research, Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), was performed on GOLD 2 and GOLD 3 stable COPD patients. The research was conducted in Pulmonary Hospital Respira, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Subjects were taken randomly as treatment group (PLB) or control group. The treatment group was consisted of 38 subjects, performed eight-minute PLB for 28 days (4 weeks) in a row. The placebo group was consisted of 37 subjects in which they only continued their previous standard therapy. The six-minute walk test was performed on those two groups before and after treatment and it was compared between PLB group and control group. Delta (D) mean of difference of distances achievement between the group which get PLB and control was tested by unpaired t-test. There was insignificant difference mean of increase in the 6-minute walk test between the two research groups. Increasing of delta mean distances achievement in 6-minute walk test of treatment group was bigger (22.19 ±45.54 meter) when it was compared to control group (18.54 ± 42.57 m), with value p = 0.720. There was no functional capacity improvement in form of distances achievement in six-minute walk test on COPD patients who receive standard therapy and pulmonary rehabilitation with PLB.