Introduction: Negative affect was identified as an important barrier to smoking cessation. Three-part breathing exercise showed a significant effect on decreasing negative affect immediately after being practiced. Thus, this study evaluated the effect of three-part breathing exercise on smoking cessation.
Methods: A 6-month cluster-randomized clinical trial was conducted. Forty-three participants recruited from 8 companies in Bangkok Metropolitan areas were randomly assigned at the cluster level into either the intervention or control groups. Control group (n = 23) received counseling for smoking cessation once a week for 12 weeks. Intervention group (n = 20) received counseling for smoking cessation plus a three-part breathing exercise program once a week for 12 weeks. The primary outcomes were 7-day point prevalence and continuous abstinence rate as validated by saliva cotinine. The secondary outcomes were cigarette cravings, nicotine withdrawal symptoms, affect and quality of life.
Results: The results revealed no significant difference in smoking abstinence rate between the three-part breathing exercise and control group. Participants demonstrated significant pre-post improvement in cigarette cravings, nicotine withdrawal symptoms, affect, and quality of life within each group.
Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. However, the improvement in abstinence rate from the three-part breathing exercise was deemed clinically relevant. Thus, it may be recommended to smokers interested in smoking cessation and more research is needed on this topic.
Keywords: Affect; Cigarette cravings; Nicotine withdrawal symptoms; Quality of life; Respiratory muscle training.
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.