Effectiveness of Slow Breathing on Blood Pressure and Quality of Life in Patients with Hypertension: A Randomized Trial

ABSTRACT

Background: Hypertension constitutes a significant cardiovascular burden globally. Non-pharmacological interventions arehighly sought either as an adjunct or primary means of managing hypertension. Slow breathing (SB) is one of such approachwhich gains attention in recent times due to its multiple physiological benefits in lowering blood pressure (BP). However, thereis a gap in literature testing the ability of SB training on quality of life (QOL) of hypertensive (HT) patients.Aim of the Study This study aims to find out the effectiveness of SB on reduction of BP and improvement in the health-relatedQOL in HT patients.Materials and Methods: It was a randomized, open, and parallel-group trial design carried out at the Outpatient Departmentof Medicine in Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The studyconsists of 60 HT patients assigned equally to either study or control group. The study group was trained with SB training for4 weeks, whereas no specific treatment was given for controls.Results: The mean drop in systolic BP (SBP) for the study group was 14.24 ± 3.30 mmHg, whereas the mean drop was only5.28 ± 2.26 mmHg for controls. The mean drop in diastolic BP (DBP) was 6.20 ± 2.69 mmHg for the study group, whereasit was only 3.12 ± 2.05 mmHg for controls. There was significantly higher drop in systolic as well as DBP in the study group.Likewise, the World Health Organization QOL-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) was improved to 10.79 ± 5.47 in the 0–100 scale forthe study group, whereas the mean improvement in the WHOQOL-BREF for control was 5.95 ± 0.01 in the 0–100 point scale.Conclusions: It was concluded that 4 weeks of SB training were effective in reducing BP and improving QOL in patients with HT.