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This study is a quasi-experimental research with aim of evaluation the effect of respiratory exercise in acute respiratory complication and the length of time patient hospitalization undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery in Kermanshah Emam Ali hospital in year 2000 The study subject consisted of 60 patients (42 male and 18 Femal), with age rang between 30-70 years old, who were eligible for this study. The subjects were selected with convenience sampeling and randomly allocated to two groups (Experimental and control). Experimental group received education in two sessions of videoteaching and control group recived routin cares. Tools of data collection consist of demographic questionnaire, clinical records, check list and respiratory exercise. Results revealed: The incidence rate of atelectasis in experimental group was (26.7%), less than contral group (%56.7), test showed significant difference between incidence rate of atelectasis (P = 0.01). Therefore the length of hospitalization in experimental group was less than control group (P=0.02). Accomplishment of post operative respiratory exercises in all samples were lower than doing exercise pre-operatively, and the highest score for effective exercise and coughing were in two and three days after surgery (P=0.000). The result of this research reveales, videoteaching is effective in promoting nursing care and self care in clients.

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Background & Aim: Fatigue is a premature symptom in the patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of breathing exercises on fatigue level of COPD patients.

Methods & Materials: This clinical trial is a semi-experimental study. 60 patients suffering COPD which are bedridden at, Tehran university of Medical Sciences hospital wards which have been sampled simply and divided into experience and control group randomly. Data gathering is done by interview and data registration from the files. The data gathering tools are questionnaires, fatigue severity scale (FSS) and respiratory exercise usage checklist. The questionnaire includes to sections of demographic characteristics and patient info. The exercises check list is scaled from 0 to 40 in the way that the maximum amount of usage in 10 days, for 4 daily sessions would be 40 and for the case of usage 0 score is assigned. Fatigue severity scale includes 9 questions with visual diagrams scaled from 0 (Lack of fatigue) to 4 (server fatigue). The gathered data is analysis using SPSS software and the descriptive and deductive statistical methods (Tisuchi, Kai2 and Pearson correlation exam) are used to achieve the research goals. Results: The results show that the average fatigue intensity for the experience group is 40.916 with the standard deviation of 14.4 and for the control group is 52.20 with 8.539 standard deviation after the study and statistical T-exam (p=0.001) indicated that there is a significant difference in fatigue severity between experience and control groups after the study. The findings also showed that the average fatigue severity before (55.766) and after (40.166) using the respiratory exercises in the experience group (p<.001) has enormous difference. While the average fatigue severity in the control group (p=0.002) before (54.166) and after (52.200) the study has a ting difference. Regarding the correlation of using respiratory exercises and the changes in fatigue severity, the Pearson statistical exam showed that there is a significant reverse correlation between using respiratory exercises and fatigue severity (r=-0.593, p=0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the research findings it can be concluded that using respiratory exercises is effective in reducing the fatigue in the patients with COPD that also confirms the research assumption and the more the respiratory exercises are used the less is the amount of fatigue in the interfered samples.

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Background & Aim: Exercise is an integral component of physical and mental health. Attention to exercise in women, regarding their physiologic situation is essential. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a specific aerobic exercise program on fetal growth in pregnant women.
Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial, 39 pregnant women in 24-32 weeks of gestation were enrolled. The participants were randomly allocated to experimental (n=18) and control (n=21) groups. Women with single pregnancies and intact amniotic membranes were included. Women who had any contraindications for exercise were excluded from the study. Exercise program included stretching and flexibility exercise and aerobic exercise (constant walking for 30-45 minuets) three days a week for eight weeks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, c², t-test, Kolmogro-smirnov and repeated measurements. P<0.05 was considered to be significant.
Results: The results showed a 1.37% increase in the newborns&apos weight in the intervention group however, the difference was not statistically significant. The average of head circumference and newborns&apos length in the intervention group&aposs newborns were 0.21cm and 0.09cm more than the control group&aposs newborns, respectively. These differences were not statistically significant too (P>0.05).
Conclusion: There were no reductions in the growth of the fetuses following the exercise activities. This kind of exercise has no adverse effect on fetal growth.

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Background & Aim: Hemodialysis patients have reduced physical capacity for various reasons resulting in increased dependence on others. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a designed exercise program on physical capacity using the Six-Minute Walking Test (6MWT) in hemodialysis patients.

Methods & Materials: In a quasi-experimental design, 25 hemodialysis patients were selected conveniently from three hospitals of Tehran. The patients in the experimental group (n=12) followed a designed exercise program three days per week, which lasted for 8 weeks. The participants in the experimental group had to exercise for 20 minutes immediately after dialysis sessions followed by a 10-minute bed rest and deep slow breaths, with their eyes closed. The control group (n=13) did not receive any treatment. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis using SPSS-18.

Results: The difference in the means of the 6MWT was not statistically significant at the start and end of the fourth and eighth weeks of the exercise program in both groups. However, comparison of these values in the experimental group before and after the intervention was clinically significant, although not statistically significant.

Conclusion: In this study, physical capacity increased after performing the exercise in the experimental group, but this value was not statistically significant. Further studies are recommended in the field.

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Background & Aim: Rapid changes experienced after child birth expose mothers to unpleasant experiences such as disturbances in sleep pattern. These experiences threaten health of mothers and infants. Some studies have shown that exercise can be an effective and non-pharmacologic method in improving sleep quality. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of exercise on sleep quality among postpartum mothers.

Methods & Materials: This was a randomized clinical trial. Eighty primiparous women aged 18-35 years were recruited from health centers in Rafsanjan in 2009. The inclusion criteria were singleton pregnancy, lack of any acute and chronic physical and mental illnesses, having healthy and term babies, and having vaginal deliveries. Participants were randomly allocated to the intervention (n=40) and control (n=40) groups. Women in the intervention group received five 30-minutes sessions of Pilates weekly for eight weeks. The PSQI instrument was used to measure the related variables at baseline, forth and eighth weeks after the deliveries. Data were analyzed using the repeated measures ANOVA.

Results: Significant improvement was seen in the intervention group within eight weeks follow-up the interaction within time and group was significant (P=0.02). Comparison of mean sleep quality between the two groups has shown that the intervention was effective (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The Pilates exercise was effective in improving quality of sleep in postpartum period.

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Background & Aim: Most of the psychological turmoil of marital conflicts is related to sexual dissatisfaction. Sexual satisfaction is influenced by physical and mental illnesses. Pelvic floor muscle relaxation is a major health problem in which prolapsed pelvic floor muscles causes paralysis, pelvic organs&apos prolpases, pelvic organs&apos dysfunction, dyspareunia, and back pain. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercise on sexual satisfaction in primiparous women.

Methods & Materials: This clinical trial was conducted among 100 primiparous women selected through cluster randomized sampling from five clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Samples were randomly divided into two equal groups. The intervention group received pelvic floor exercises (Kegel) for 16 weeks. The control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected using the Linda Berg questionnaire before the intervention and 16 weeks after the intervention in both groups. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square, t-test in the SPSS v.18.

Results: After 16 weeks, significant differences were reported in the levels of sexual satisfaction in the intervention and control groups (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The Kegel exercises are easy and non-expensive methods that should be offered by health professionals to increase sexual satisfaction in women after childbirth.

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Background & Aim: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor disorder that is frequently observed in patients with multiple sclerosis. This study aimed to determine the effect of stretching exercises on the severity of restless legs syndrome symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Methods & Materials: This quasi-experimental study with control group (IRCT2016041627427N1) was conducted on 60 patients with multiple sclerosis (30 in the intervention group and 30 in the control group) referred to the multiple sclerosis society of Kermanshah in 2015. “The demographic questionnaire”, “the symptoms of restless legs syndrome and their severity”, and “exercise recording form” were used to collect the data. The intervention group was taught the correct way to exercise during four half-hour sessions. The severity of RLS symptoms was measured before the intervention and the end of the fourth and eighth weeks. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS software version 20.

Results: Before the intervention, the mean score for the severity of RLS symptoms was respectively 19.08±8.12 and 17.42±5.24 in the intervention and control groups (P=0.569). One month (P=0.002) and two months after the intervention (P<0.001), the score was changed to 9.70±5.24 and 7.08±4.08 in the intervention group and 17.61±5.31 and 17.92±5.52 in the control group.

Conclusion: Stretching exercises can improve the severity of RLS symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis. Therefore, the stretching exercises program is recommended for this group of patients.

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Background & Aim: Urinary incontinence is a common disorder in women. Pelvic floor muscle exercise is one of the effective treatment methods. Self-efficacy is considered an effective and strong predictor of willingness to perform and continue these exercises. In Iran, there is no appropriate tool for assessing self-efficacy. So this study was performed to determine the psychometric properties of the Broome scale in women with urinary incontinence.
Methods & Materials: A psychometric study of the Broome scale was conducted on women with urinary incontinence who referred to health centers affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences in 2015.In this study, following processes were implemented: translation, back translation, face validity, content validity using CVR and CVI, reliability using Cronbach’s α coefficient, and construct validity using explanatory factor analysis.
Results: The face validity was confirmed through the modification of ambiguous items based on the patients’ views. Content validity (CVR= 0.8 and CVI= 0.8 to 0.9) and reliability (Cronbach’s α= 0.96) were also confirmed. Explanatory factor analysis showed two factors with eigen value more than 1 including pelvic floor exercise self-efficacy in usual and special situations. These factors explained 82.08 percent of the total variance.
Conclusion: The reliability and validity of the Broome scale were confirmed for using by Iranian women with urinary incontinence, and this scale can be used to measure these women's self-efficacy in performing pelvic floor exercises.
 

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Background & Aim: Depression is common among cardiac patients, especially patients with heart failure and leads to a poor prognosis. This study aimed to assess the effect of exercise on depressive symptoms in patients with heart failure, attending the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center.
Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial, 60 patients with NYHA class II and III heart failure who referred to the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center of Shafa Hospital affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2015 were randomly assigned into two groups of 30 patients. Subjects in the intervention group participated in a supervised 8-week exercise program, 3 days per week, while those in the control group only received standard routine care. Data were collected before and after the intervention by the demographic form and the Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). Data analysis was done by Chi-Square, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U and Nonparametric ANCOVA tests using the SPSS version 21 and R software.
Results: The two groups were homogeneous in terms of depression score before the intervention. The median and interquartile range of the score of depression were 10 (5.25) in the control group and 8.5 (9.25) in the intervention group which showed a significant difference (P=0.042). By adjusting the variables of the duration of the disease and the pre-test scores of depression symptoms by non-parametric covariance test, the difference between the two groups was also significant.
Conclusion: Exercise can reduce depressive symptoms in patients with heart failure.
Clinical trial registry: IRCT201605107844N10
 

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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
 

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Background & Aim: Maintaining and improving the health of the elderly through effective interventions requires the recognition of their lifestyle, including exercise using a valid and appropriate culture-specific tool. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate the psychometric properties of a tool for measuring exercise self-efficacy in the elderly.
Methods & Materials: A sequential exploratory mixed method study was performed in the form of a questionnaire with two qualitative and quantitative sections in 2019. The qualitative section consisted of item generation including three stages: theoretical stage (targeted search of existing literature), field work (semi-structured interviews with the elderly) and final analysis (integration of the results from the two previous stages). In the quantitative section, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire was evaluated using face, content and construct validity as well as the reliability through internal consistency and stability.
Results: Out of 37 initial items, four items were removed after calculating the item impact score.  Seven items were removed after assessing the content validity ratio and content validity index. Also, five items were omitted due to having a load factor less than 0.03. The result of exploratory factor analysis consisted of three factors “recognition”, “situational compatibility” and “self-control” which all together could explain 90.180% of the variance. The Cronbach’s alpha and the Intraclass correlation coefficient were found to be 0.957 and 0.949 respectively.
Conclusion: The data analysis approved that the designed tool can be used for measuring exercise self-efficacy among the elderly due to having acceptable reliability and validity, simplicity and a short completion time.
 

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Background & Aim: With age, some physiological changes cause a negative effect on gait patterns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week rotary exercises program on spatial and temporal gait parameters in elderly men.
Methods & Materials: This was a quasi-experimental study. A total of 38 employees and retirees over 60 years of age from Isfahan University of Technology in 2019, were selected by the convenience and purposeful sampling and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (19 people). The gait parameters were assessed through marking the subjects’ trunk and lower extremities, along with simultaneously filming from three directions (anterior, posterior, and lateral) with a Canon 700D camera, and loading the videos into KINOVEA software. The exercise program were performed in three 60-minute sessions per week for six weeks. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and the analysis of variance with repeated measures were used.
Results: The results showed a significant difference in the number of steps per minute (Cadence) (P<0.001), step speed (P=0.019), stride time (P<0.001), step time (P<0.001), time of stretching or deployment (P=0.002), oscillation time (P<0.001) and dual protection time (P=0.014), but other parameters such as stride length (P=0.102), step length (P=0.137) and step width (P=0.089) were not significantly different.
Conclusion: Implementation of the 6-week combined rotary exercises program in the elderly can improve the gait parameters, reduce the risk of falls and thus reduce the number of referrals to treatment centers in this age group.
 

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Background & Aim: Imbalance and risk of falling is one of the most common problems in the elderly. Various interventions have been suggested in order to improve the elderly’s physical performance and balance. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of Tai Chi Chuan exercise on the balance status of elderly men.
Methods & Materials: In this clinical trial study, 40 elderly men referred to Golabchi health center in Kashan in 2021 were selected by the convenience sampling. Using blocked randomization with the block size of four, they were assigned into intervention or control groups. First, the balance status of the participants was assessed by Fullerton test. The maximum score of this test is 40 and has a direct relationship with the quality of the balance state. Then, the Tai Chi Chuan exercises were performed in the intervention group for 20 sessions of 30-40 minutes. The control group continued their routine visits. Two weeks after the intervention, the balance test was performed again. To compare the demographic variables between the two groups, t-test and Chi-square tests or their non-parametric equivalents were used. ANCOVA test was used to compare the balance status between the two groups using the SPSS software version 20. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.
Results: The results showed the two groups were not significantly different in demographic variables. Although the comparison of the median of two groups before the intervention had no statistically significant difference (P=0.988), ANCOVA showed that considering the scores before the intervention as a covariate, the Fullerton scores after the intervention were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.001).
Conclusion: This study showed that Tai Chi Chuan exercises can improves the balance of the elderly men, and its use is recommended for elderly patients to reduce the possibility of falling and related problems.
Clinical trial registry: IRCT20200108046058N1

 

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Background & Aim: Aging is often accompanied by a decline in cognitive and motor performance. Various interventions have been proposed to improve cognitive function and balance, with recent approaches focusing on cognitive-motor training methods. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of body percussion rhythmic exercises on the balance and cognitive flexibility of the elderly.
Methods & Materials: This clinical trial utilized a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The study population comprised healthy male seniors from a neighborhood hall, a center for the elderly in Kashmir, during 2022-2023. A total of 60 elderly men, aged 60 to 75 years, were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group, with each consisting of 30 participants. Data were collected using the Sharpened-Romberg test, the Timed Up and Go test, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The intervention group participated in 36 sessions of rhythmic body percussion exercises based on the BAPNE method, while the control group continued with their regular daily activities. Data were analyzed using multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) in SPSS version 19.
Results: The results showed that rhythmic body percussion exercises significantly enhanced static balance (F=232.31, ƞ²=0.83, P=0.004), dynamic balance (F=359.68, ƞ²=0.86, P=0.002), cognitive flexibility (the number of categories achieved) (F=11.45, ƞ²=0.16, P=0.001) and preservatives errors (F=108.77, ƞ ²=0.65, P=0.001) in the elderly.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that rhythmic body percussion exercises improve both balance and cognitive flexibility in the elderly. Therefore, these cognitive-motor exercises are recommended for the elderly population.
Clinical trial registry: IRCT20220704055369N1