1. A Biofeedback App to Instruct Abdominal Breathing (Breathing-Mentor): Pilot Experiment
- Author
-
Faust-Christmann, Corinna Anna, Taetz, Bertram, Zolynski, Gregor, Zimmermann, Tobias, and Bleser, Gabriele
- Subjects
Information technology ,T58.5-58.64 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
BackgroundDeep and slow abdominal breathing is an important skill for the management of stress and pain. However, despite multiple proofs on the effectiveness of biofeedback, most breathing apps remain limited to pacing specific breathing patterns, without sensor feedback on the actual breathing behavior. ObjectiveTo fill this gap, an app named Breathing-Mentor was developed. This app combines effective visualization of the instruction with biofeedback on deep abdominal breathing, based on the mobile phone’s accelerometers. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate users’ feedback and breathing behavior during initial contact with the app. MethodsTo reveal the possible effects of biofeedback, two versions of the mobile app were developed. Both contained the same visual instruction, but only the full version included additional biofeedback. In total, 40 untrained participants were randomly assigned to one of the two versions of the app. They had to follow the app’s instructions as closely as possible for 5 min. ResultsThe group with additional biofeedback showed an increased signal-to-noise ratio for instructed breathing frequency (0.1 Hz) compared with those using visual instruction without biofeedback (F1,37=4.18; P
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF