Modulation of Heart Rate Variability in Stressed Medical Students Via Breathing Exercise

Background: Stress in medical students is a global concern. Stress disturbs the sympathovagal balance and affects heart rate variability, a sign of healthy cardiovascular homeostasis. Various strategies have been used globally to combat stress and its effects. Aim: To determine how blowing balloon exercise modulatesheart rate variability (HRV) in stressed medical students. Methodology: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study wasconducted among stressed medical students at Islamic international medical college Rawalpindi Pakistan. Sixty students diagnosed with moderate stress were enrolled based on Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) Proforma. The study population was selected by simple random sampling via the balloting method among the stressed medical students. Study participants underwent a supervised blowing balloon exercise.Before and after a supervised blowing balloon exercise, the participants' pulmonary function tests, electrocardiograms, and DASS scores were measured. Participants' ECGs and pulmonary function tests were recorded viaPower lab (A.D. Instruments, model yam 4/25T, South Wales, Australia). Results: Blowing balloon exercise resulted in a significant reduction of DASS score (p