Studying of the Status of Quality of Life and its Predictors in Adult Asthmatic Patients in Ahvaz: Basic Information for Better Control of Asthma

Asthma is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can affect the patients’ quality of life (QoL). Nowadays, evaluating QoL and its predictors is considered a criterion for the assessment of appropriate control and cure for asthma and other chronic diseases. Knowing how well patients feel and what aspects of QoL they have no feelings for, would help make future plans in a way that their pain will be lessened.
The primary objective of the current study was to investigate the OoL among adult patients with asthma in Ahvaz, Iran in during years 2014 and 2015. The secondary objective was to determine the most powerful predictors for QoL among such patients.
In this cross-sectional study, by using the convenience sampling method, 384 patients were selected with respect to the inclusion criteria. The data collection tools fell into two parts, the first of which included demographic variables and the second part was a Mini asthma quality of life questionnaire. The data were collected by an interviewer, who interviewed patients before being visited by the specialist at the clinic.
All in all, the lowest mean QoL was obtained for emotional functions dimension. According to the findings, the majority of patients had an undesirable OoL (43.8%). Finally, the results indicated that the duration of disease was the most powerful predictor of QoL among asthmatic patients (β = -0.76, P = 0.001).
The study results indicated that adult patients with asthma did not have a desirable OoL, a fact which requires making serious plans to control the disease better and to improve the OoL. Considering the fact that the duration of disease was the most powerful predictor of OoL among asthmatic patients, it is essential for the medical team to pay special attention to the patients suffering from asthma for a longer duration.