IMT as a post-COVID-19 recovery strategy [COVID-19]

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Inspiration for the future: Using inspiratory muscle training in post-COVID-19 rehabilitation

  • IRAS ID

    286768

  • Contact name

    Melitta McNarry

  • Contact email

    m.mcnarry@swansea.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Swansea University

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Summary of Research
    More and more people are now surviving COVID-19. But we do not know the best way to help them to recover quickly and fully. People recovering from COVID-19 talk about continued shortness of breath, causing tiredness and difficulty doing basic tasks of daily living. We believe that we can improve this shortness of breath by training the muscles involved in breathing using a handheld device that gives regular feedback to the user. To use the device, people breathe in as deeply as they can, for as long as they can. To see if this helps people recover faster, we will ask willing volunteers to use this device for 4-8 weeks and we will look at whether they get less breathless, stronger, fitter, move around more and, importantly, whether they feel better about their health and well-being. We will compare how 200 people who do this training feel compared to 50 people who do not. We will work with members of the public to develop easy to understand blogs and infographics that will be used to quickly tell people the results of the work as we get them. We believe that this training could reduce suffering and strain on the NHS.

    Summary of Results
    : According to intention to treat (ITT), there was no difference between groups in Kings Brief Interstitial lung disease (KBLID) total score post-intervention but inspiratory muscle training elicited clinically meaningful improvements in the KBILD subdomains of breathlessness and chest symptoms, along with clinically meaningful improvements in breathlessness according to transient dyspnea index. IMT also improved respiratory muscle strength and estimated aerobic fitness.

  • REC name

    London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/HRA/3536

  • Date of REC Opinion

    13 Oct 2020

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion