Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of Buteyko breathing in the comprehensive treatment of bronchial asthma in school-age children.
Materials and Methods: The study included 48 children with bronchial asthma aged 12 to 18 years. The main group included children who received drug therapy for bronchial asthma in combination with Buteyko breathing (n=24). The comparison group consisted of children who received only drug therapy for bronchial asthma (n=24). The patients were followed up for one year during five scheduled visits at 3-month intervals.
At all visits, the dynamics of clinical symptoms and the results of the asthma control test were assessed. At the first and last visits, respiratory function andquality of life were evaluated.
Results: The study demonstrated improvement in quality of life and disease control in patients with bronchial asthma who, in addition to medication, used Buteyko breathing.
Conclusions: In patients with bronchial asthma who used Buteyko breathing along with medical treatment, asthma control improved after 3 months of treatment (p=0.01) and continued to increase during the year of observation more than in the comparison group (p<0.001). There was also a significant increase in the mean quality of life score in the main group after one year of treatment, in contrast to the comparison group (p<0.001). Assessment of respiratory function showed a significant increase in FEV1 in both groups after one year of treatment, without a statistically significant difference between the groups (p>0.05).