The Effect of Slow-Paced Breathing on Cardiovascular and Emotion Functions: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Objectives Slow-paced breathing entails voluntarily controlling one’s breathing rate to a frequency close to the oscillation frequency of the cardiovascular system. Accumulating evidence indicates slow-paced breathing improves cardiovascular and emotion functions. However, there is no meta-analysis that quantifies pooled effect of slow-paced breathing across studies with nonclinical populations. Method In this meta-analysis and systematic review, we synthesized the findings of 31 studies (total n = 1133) which investigated the effect of slow-paced breathing on cardiovascular and emotion measures. PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycARTICLES electronic databases were searched up to August 1, 2023. Random-effect modelling was conducted to compute pooled effect size across studies. Results Slow-paced breathing showed significant immediate effects in reducing systolic blood pressure (Standardized Mean Difference or SMD = -0.45, 95% CI = [-0.86, -0.04], p