Date of this Version

6-6-2017

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate whether beliefs about asthma medication, cognitive and emotional factors are related to poor asthma control in a sample of Latvian asthma patients in 2015.

Design

Cross-sectional, self-administered survey.

Subjects

Three hundred and fifty two asthma patients (mean age 57.5 years) attending outpatient pulmonologist consultations in Riga, Latvia during September 2013 to December 2015. The sample size was calculated to detect a prevalence of poor asthma control of 50% with a margin of error of 5% and a power of 95%.

Main outcome measures

The validated Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire (BMQ) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (brief IPQ) were used. Good asthma control was assessed using the asthma control test (ACT), a validated five-item scale that reliably assesses asthma control over a recall period of four weeks. Logistic regression models were used to predict poor asthma control.

Results

Patients who had a good control of asthma medication (OR 0.70; 95% CI 0.61–0.79) or were confident that their asthma medication improves illness (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.74–0.95) had a reduced risk of poor asthma control. The more symptoms (OR 1.63; 95% CI 1.44–1.84) the asthma patients perceived or the more their illness affects their life, the higher the probability of poor asthma control (OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.31–1.65). Some beliefs of necessity and concerns of asthma medication were also statistically significantly related to poor asthma control.

Conclusions

Beliefs of necessity of asthma medication, cognitive and emotional illness perception factors correlate well with poor asthma control in Latvian patients.

Comments

Originally published in Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care.

Identifier

FI19072301

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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