collaborations

BREATHE-INDIA

About the project

Title: BREATHE-INDIA: BREATHlEssness in INDIA - Development of a breathlessness beliefs and behaviour education intervention for use in the community-setting
Funder: Medical Research Council
Time frame: October 2022 - 18 months
Contact for more details:  Dr Joseph Clark

Persistent breathlessness despite treatment of causal disease(s) is associated with disability and a vicious cycle of avoiding physical activity-related breathlessness, deconditioning and increasing breathlessness. Those affected participate less in the workforce, risking curtailing of children’s education to increase income, and need more healthcare.

Low-cost self-management breathlessness-targeted interventions are effective and deliverable in community-settings (e.g. breathing techniques). However, few are developed or tested for acceptability or effectiveness in India or other low-resource countries.

Working with key stakeholders (clinicians, patients, community leaders) we will review existing evidence for breathlessness intervention to develop a prototype intervention for persistent breathlessness in India.

This project will co-design a programme-theory to inform development of a flexible population health, community-based education intervention. The intervention will address breathlessness-related beliefs and behaviours e.g. physical activity, cool airflow, healthcare utilisation.