Breathing exercises in people with COPD: A realist review

To determine the theoretical framework that explains the mechanisms of the success of breathing exercise interventions in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A realist review.

Seven bibliographic databases and the grey literature were searched from 2015-January 2020 to identify the studies of breathing exercises.

The evaluation criteria of realist review and the mixed method appraisal tool were both used to evaluate the included studies. We extracted and integrated the context-mechanism-outcome strings of each study to form the theoretical framework.

Six theoretical mechanisms that affected the success of the intervention were articulated: Wide acceptance of training methods, Integration of the intervention with life, Self-management of the participants, Confidence in controlling symptoms, Participation and support of practitioners, Motivation for intervention. Conversely, the other two mechanisms including the gap between implementation and training and the duration of the intervention, had negative impacts on the implementation of breathing exercises.

This review updates and expands the previous literature review on the impact of breathing exercises in people and provides researchers and clinical practitioners with theoretical mechanisms to ensure that the interventions achieve expected effects.

When formulating or selecting breathing exercise interventions, our theoretical framework will guide researchers and clinical practitioners to ensure that the intervention will have practical effects.