Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise on Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) in Individual with Asthma

Asthma is a chronic airway disease caused by inflammation and resulting of hypersensitivity on the airway, in which it is rising several clinical symptoms of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain, cough varying over time, along with limited of the expiration airflow. As a result, asthma cause difficulties during expiration and responsible for the decreasing of the Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF). This study aimed to analyze the effect of diaphragmatic breathing exercise towards Peak Expiratory Flow of asthma patient during an acute episode. The research design is pre-experimental with one group pre-post-test with 20 samples which was collected by using purposive sampling method. This research was conducted in April 2017. The result of the study showed mean of PEF pretest was 73, 05% and post-test was 77, 67%. It can be concluded that diaphragm breathing exercises give impact to the PEF of asthma patients.