Just Breathe! A Case Study on the Effects of Flute on Post-COVID-19 Patients
Abstract
This study will investigate the effects of utilizing the flute with patients who are experiencing long-COVID-19 symptoms while in pulmonary rehabilitation. It will be a case study with two to five participants who will be between the ages of 18 through 67. The participants will be examined in a pretest posttest procedure that examines their lung capacity before starting the study, before and after completing each flute intervention, and after the study is completed. Participants will be recruited from a hospital near the student music therapist. Sanitary precautions will include cleaning the flute when used, wiping down the inside the flute, and cleaning the mouthpiece of the headjoint. In addition, the mouthpiece is removeable and can be distributed to each of the participants. The sessions will be conducted over a period of 2 months. The second through fourth sessions will be adaptive flute lessons that go over breathing exercises, forming an embouchure, and introducing different note fingerings. The participants will start off with going over different breathing exercises. After these three sessions, the first participant will go into the treatment portion of the study where they will do a low D, a middle range D, and a high D on the instrument in piano, mezzo forte, and forte dynamics. In the week after, the second participant will start in secondary part of the study, and this will continue throughout the rest of the participants. The Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) will be used to gather data in both pretest and posttest procedures in order to determine if there has been a change in lung capacity within the participants throughout the study. Data taken with the HRQL will be analyzed through the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire Self-Reported (CRQ-SR). Results from this study will show that the use of flute through music therapy methods to show the improvement of lung capacity. Keywords: flute, COVID-19, pulmonary rehabilitation, lung capacity