The impact of asthma on quality of life and anxiety: a pilot study

Abstract

Introduction: Asthmatic patients are at risk for psychiatric symptoms. The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that asthmatics have worse quality of life and anxiety scores in relation to a control group. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study in which quality of life and anxiety scores were compared in a sample of 102 individuals, 51 asthmatics and 51 non-asthmatics. Quality of life and anxiety scores were quantified using validated questionnaires. The differences between the averages and the correlations between the total score for quality of life and anxiety were compared with t-tests and Pearson's correlation tests, respectively. The odds ratio compared the prevalence of moderate and severe anxiety between the groups. Results: The asthma group had higher average anxiety (p < 0.001) and lower averages in all areas of quality of life: physical functioning, physical role functioning, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, emotional role functioning and mental health (p < 0.05 for all variables). There was a significant and inverse correlation between the total score for quality of life and anxiety scores but only in the asthma group (r = −0.71). Conclusions: Asthmatics have worse indicators of quality of life and anxiety, even though the symptoms of asthma are under clinical control. Moreover, the inverse correlation between the quality of life and the average anxiety scores in the asthma group suggests that the pulmonary inflammatory process of asthma may be related to the pathophysiology of emotional commitment in that group.