The effect of yoga breathing exercises on asthma control in 5-11 year-old children with asthma

Background & Aim: The goal of asthma treatment and management is its control. Yoga is one of the complementary treatments which is used to control asthma. This study aimed to determine the effect of yoga breathing exercises on asthma control in 5-11 year-old children with asthma. Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 84 children with asthma, aged 5-11 years, referred to Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Aliasghar hospital, were included in the study in 2018. The participants were selected through continuous sampling and non-randomly allocated to an experiment- or a control group (42 in each group). The Childhood Asthma Control Test (C_ACT) was used to collect the data, before and after the intervention. The intervention included yoga breathing exercises. The researcher trained the children and their parents at the clinic and these exercises were performed by the children for two months, with parental supervision at home. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 21 using independent t-test, paired t-test, chi-square and Fishers exact test. Results: The mean of age was 8.42(1.96) for the experiment group and 8.11(1.8) for the control group. In the experiment group, 76.2% were male, and 23.8% were female. In the control group, 73.8% were male and 26.2% were female. Before the intervention, the mean of asthma control score was 17.81±4.42 for the experiment group and 18.38±4.24 for the control group but this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.54). After the intervention, the mean of asthma control score for the experiment group and control group was 21.69±1.6 and 19.83±2.4, respectively. This difference was statistically significant (P˂0.001). Conclusion: Yoga breathing exercises improved asthma in children. According to the results, yoga breathing exercises are suggested as scientific, simple and refreshing techniques in children with asthma. Clinical trial registry: IRCT20180501039489N1