Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Physical Therapy for Cardiopulmonary and Geriatric Disorders

Background: The proportion of the older population reached 8.5 percent of the total population around the world. Elderly people generally want to live independently as long as possible and practice their activities of daily living. Aim of the study: This study was designed to investigate the response of diaphragmatic excursion to inspiratory muscles training in elderly. Subjects and methods: Forty elderly subjects (18 men-22 women) were recruited from elragaa retirement home in Cairo for this study. They were assigned into two groups equal in number; study group who received training with threshold IMT and diaphragmatic breathing exercises, and the control group who received diaphragmatic breathing exercises only. The training program for both groups was three times per week for 10 weeks, diaphragmatic excursion during normal and deep breathing was measured by ultrasonography for all subjects before and after the study. Results: The analysis of the results of the current study showed that diaphragmatic excursion in elderly significantly improved post treatment in the study group by 25.6% in quiet breathing and by 15.6% in deep bteathing and P value 0.000 in both of them ,while improved to a lesser extent in the control group by 4.97% with P value 0.011 in quiet breathing and 5.04 % with P value 0.004 in deep breathing. Conclusion: Inspiratory muscle training improved the diaphragmatic excursion in elderly

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