The effect of deep breathing method and positive affirmation on blood pressure decrease in patients with essential hypertension in Kulon ProgoPurposeThe purpose of this paper was to compare the influence of deep breathing method and positive affirmation on the decrease in blood pressure in essential hypertensive patients in Kulon Progo.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 96 patients with essential hypertension who were randomly assigned to two intervention groups, namely deep breathing and positive affirmations. The DB group was asked to perform stomach breathing for approximately 10 minutes, while the AP group was asked to give one of the repetitive and rhythmically determined positive affirmation sentences for about 10 minutes.ResultsDeep breathing and positive affirmations can lower systolic blood pressure (11.9 ± 10.9 and 13.6 ± 10.5) and diastolic (8.3 ± 8.4 and 6.0 ± 8.6) in patients with essential hypertension. The mean blood pressure results on post1 and post2 measurements were not significantly different. The decrease in blood pressure in both groups was also not different.ConclusionThis study contributes to the knowledge that the effectiveness of deep breathing and positive affirmations in lowering blood pressure is the same. The decrease in blood pressure of both methods was stable up to 15 minutes after the intervention.