The Effects of Kinesio Taping on Coughing Capacity and Expiratory Muscle Activity in Healthy Adults: A Preliminary Study

Coughing plays a vital role in clearing the airways.Efficient coughing requires proper expiratory muscle strength.Kinesio taping (KT) is widely used in sports injuries and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, and research regarding its efficacy is actively ongoing.Recently, KT has been used for respiratory and thoracic rehabilitation.However, there are few studies on how KT alters coughing ability.Moreover, posture influences coughing; however, the effects of KT application and postural changes on coughing ability have not yet been explored.Therefore, this was a preliminary study to confirm the applicability of KT as a respiratory muscle-strengthening adjuvant method for effective coughing.We investigated the effectiveness of KT by comparing coughing ability according to posture after KT.We performed surface electromyography (sEMG) of the rectus abdominis (RA) and external oblique (EO) muscles in 15 healthy individuals.KT was applied to the RA and EO muscles for 24 hours.To evaluate the cough capacity, PEF (L/s), forced vital capacity (FVC) (L), and forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1) (L) were determined using a pulmonary function test.All measurements were performed in supine and seated positions.SPSS 21.0 version was used for analysis.The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to verify data normality.The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.The PEF improved after 24 hours compared to that before the application of KT in the supine position.However, there was no significant difference in the sEMG data of the right EO muscle.Although there was no significant difference in PEF between the sitting and supine positions without taping 24 hours after KT application, the muscle activities of the left RA and EO muscles were significantly higher in the sitting position than in the supine position.Although KT did not produce consistent changes in respiratory muscle activity, its application to the RA and EO muscles was associated with improved cough capacity.These results suggest that KT may serve as an effective adjunctive intervention for enhancing cough function by facilitating expiratory muscle performance.Further research involving larger and more diverse populations, including older adults and patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, is necessary to confirm these findings and to optimize KT application techniques.