Evaluation of a nurse‐supervised rehabilitation programme on clinical features and systemic inflammation in Chinese children with asthma: A propensity score‐matched analysis

Abstract

Aims To evaluate whether a nurse‐supervised rehabilitation programmes could improve respiratory functions and systematic inflammation in children with asthma. Background Children with asthma always suffer from poor life quality, and physical training and pulmonary rehabilitation could be beneficial to asthma. Design A retrospective, observational, single‐centre cohort analysis. Method Baseline characteristics between the nurse‐supervised rehabilitation programme and usual‐care groups were matched by propensity‐score matching (PSM) in a 1:1 ratio. We compared the lung function and inflammatory markers between groups. Results Among 52 pairs of children, differences in lung function were improved in the nurse‐supervised rehabilitation group compared with those in usual‐care group, including the oxygen saturation, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory flow of 25%–75% and peak expiratory flow (all P < 0.05). Two asthma‐related inflammatory markers (hypersensitive C‐reactive protein and immunoglobulin E) also significantly decreased in the nurse‐supervised rehabilitation group (both P < 0.001). Conclusions The results indicate that the nurse‐supervised rehabilitation programme might be effective in improving symptom control, respiratory functions and systemic inflammation in children with asthma. The study suggests that the NSR for asthma merits further research.

The Effects of Combined Respiratory Muscle and Exercise Training in Children with Bronchial Asthma: A Randomised Controlled Study

“…Haixia found that rehabilitation training could improve FEV1%, PEF% and MMEF75/25% in children. 7 Kirkby also proposed that rehabilitation training could improve FEV1% in children. 8 These differences in further information is needed in the future to verify these observations.…”

“…At present, respiratory rehabilitation is seldom used in children with asthma; most children received a combination of respiratory training (pursed lip breathing and Buteyko breathing) and exercise training to improve exercise ability, asthma control and quality-of-life in children. [6][7][8] However, previous research has shown that children experience difficulty in exhalation and limitations associated with exercise limitation; they are also limited by the fact that expiratory airflow can change the shape and position of the diaphragm and reduce the function of the respiratory muscles. 9 At present, there are no reports relating to the combination of respiratory muscle training to the respiratory rehabilitation program in China.…”

The effects of combined respiratory muscle and exercise training in children with bronchial asthma

“…At present, it remains controversial as to whether rehabilitation training can improve lung function. Haixia (Ha, H. X et al,2021) found that rehabilitation training could improve FEV1%, PEF% and MMEF75/25% in children. Kirkby (Kirkby, S et al,2018) also proposed that rehabilitation training could improve FEV1% in children.…”