Effects of Inspiratory Training on Respiratory Function and Balance in Stroke Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective:This study aimed to explore the effect of inspiratory training on respiratory function and balance in patients with stroke. We also sought to compare the results with those of a control group that did not receive the intervention. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: In this study, 27 patients with chronic stroke were randomly assigned to either the control (n = 14) or experimental (n = 13) groups. Both groups underwent 6 weeks of common interventions involving standard physiotherapy and treadmill training. The experimental group also underwent inspiratory training. Respiratory function and balance were evaluated using the forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), maximal expiratory pressure (MEP), peak expiratory flow (PEF), Five times Sit-to-Stand (FTSTS), seated center of pressure (S-COP), and Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) tests. Results: Respiratory function and balance were compared between the groups before and after the intervention. The experimental group, which received inspiratory training, exhibited significant improvements in FVC (0.26±0.18), FEV1 (0.35±0.32), MIP (11.54±12.39), PEF (1.12±1.52), and TUG ( 3.39±2.45) compared to the pre-intervention values (p 0.05). When comparing － ＜ changes between the groups post-intervention, the experimental group demonstrated significant increases in FVC, FEV1, MIP, PEF, and TUG compared to the control group (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the MEP, FTSTS, and S-COP results. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated the positive effect of inspiratory training in patients with chronic stroke. We believe that future studies that implementlarger sample sizes and enhanced intervention methods could contribute to the positive use ofinspiratory training in the rehabilitation of patients with stroke.