Effects of a 20-Minute Mindfulness-Based Breathing Exercise on Dyspnea, Fatigue, and Sleep Quality in Patients With Heart Failure

Summary

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic condition that leads to incapacity. Despite significant progress in optimizing pharmacological treatment for HF patients, the personal and social burden of this disease is still characterized by debilitating symptoms and rehospitalizations. Today, many patients with heart failure use non-pharmacological methods for managing common symptoms. Due to the increased interest in non-pharmacological methods among individuals in society, it has become essential for healthcare professionals, including nurses as part of the healthcare team, to play a role in these methods to meet the health needs of the community.

One of the interventions nurses can offer for symptom management is mindfulness-based breathing exercises. In this mind-body-based practice, attention is focused on the breath, helping individuals develop awareness of their negative thoughts and emotions.

The study population will consist of patients admitted to the Cardiology Department of Firat University Hospital. The sample size was determined by a power analysis, with a 0.05 margin of error, a 0.95 confidence interval, and a 0.5 effect size, representing 80% of the population, resulting in 72 patients for both the experimental and control groups. Data collection tools for the study will include a Personal Information Form, the Dyspnea-12 Scale, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F) Scale, and the Richard-Campbell Sleep Scale. SPSS (Statistical Programme for Social Sciences) software will be used to analyze the data obtained from the study.

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of a 20-minute mindfulness-based breathing exercise on dyspnea, fatigue, and sleep quality in patients with heart failure.

Conditions

• Heart Failure
• Heart Failure - NYHA II - IV

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

20-minute mindfulness-based breathing exercise

Mindfulness-based approaches help to focus attention and teach individuals strategies for coping with challenging situations, accepting experiences, building self-confidence, and disengaging. Mindfulness-based practices increase an individual's level of awareness and distance them from current or potential stress factors. In recent years, non-pharmacological complementary and integrative interventions have become more widely used in disease management. Studies supporting the use of mindfulness-based interventions, particularly for the management of acute and chronic pain, have demonstrated biological and psychological improvements. In this study, the aim of the 20-minute mindfulness-based breathing exercise program is to reduce dyspnea and fatigue levels and improve sleep quality in heart failure patients who face many challenging situations. After a pre-test, the experimental group will receive the mindfulness-based breathing exercise program. The program will last for 6 weeks, with e

BEHAVIORAL

Control (Standard treatment)

No intervention would be applied to patients in this group and only pre-test and post-test data would be collected.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Firat University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-08-15

Primary Completion

2025-09-01

Completion

2026-06-20