Effect of Land Training Versus Aquatic Therapy on Pulmonary Functions and Activity Tolerance on Asthmatic Children

Background: Both graduated land training exercise and Aquatic therapy may have beneficial effects on asthmatic patients. Despite this there is a contradiction about their effect on improving pulmonary functions and level of exertion on asthmatic patient.Objective: The aim of this study was to find out if land or aquatic training have beneficial effect on pulmonary func-tions and exercise tolerance moreover, which of them has the most effect.Methods: 40 asthmatic children (23 boys and 17 girls), aged from 6-12 years old were chosen after clinical examination and pulmonary function tests. They were told to have exercise induced asthma as preliminary tests showed: FEV1 80%, increase of 12% or more in FEV1 after short acting P2 agonist and decrease of 15% in FEV1 after six minute walking test (6 MWT) with 60-70% of maximum heart rate.They were allocated into two groups, land training group (M=11 and F=9) and aquatic therapy program group (M=12 and F=8) for 16 weeks. Pulmonary function tests, and borg scale were done before and after the course of exercise.Results: Showed significant improvements in pulmonary functions, and borg scale after 16 weeks of exercise in both groups, however by comparison between groups at the end of the study, swimming group showed more significant improvement in all parameters.This study demonstrates positive effects of both swimming and land training on pulmonary functions and exercise tolerance, but swimming has better effects.