Effect of psychological and other factors on quality of life amongst asthma outpatients in Lagos, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to assess the effect of psychological and other possible factors associated with poor health related quality of life (HRQOL) in outpatient with asthma in Lagos, Nigeria.

METHODS

Patients (n  = 201) recruited from the adult asthma outpatient clinic were assessed for sociodemographic and asthma related variables. Levels of social support (with Oslo 3-Item Social Support Scale), disability (with WHO Disability Assessment Scale) were assessed. The presence of anxiety and depression was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) and asthma related quality of life was assessed with the Mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (Mini-AQLQ).

RESULTS

Of the 4 domains of Mini-AQLQ, the "environmental" domain has the lowest weighted mean score of 2.43 (SD = 1.64) while the "activity limitation" domain has the highest mean score of 4.74 (SD = 1.57). Poor asthma related QOL was independently associated with being unemployed (p = 0.028), poor social support (p = 0.002), nocturnal asthma (p = 0.046), clinically rated "severe asthma" (p = 0.002), patients rated "severe asthma" (p < 0.001), high level of disability (p < 0.001) and presence of Anxiety/Depression (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Our study has shown that psychological variables, disability, patients' subjective severity rating and social support are the most important factors independently associated with asthma related QOL. These factors should be considered in planning health care services or formulating a predictive intervention model.