Asthma Control Levels and Their Impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of Asthma Patients in Quetta, Pakistan

OBJECTIVES: The study was aimed to assess asthma control levels and their impact on health related quality of life (HRQoL) of asthma patients in Quetta, Pakistan.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study with a sample of 361 was conducted in different public hospitals outpatient departments and clinics of Quetta Pakistan by using a convenience sampling technique. The Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) was used to measure the asthma control of the asthmatic patients. The descriptive and inferential statistics have been done by using SPSS version 20 with a p value <0.05. While the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) was used to measure the HRQOL of the asthmatic patients. The descriptive and inferential statistics have been done by using SPSS version 20.

RESULTS: The study found that an average score of asthma control was 3.1±1.10 thereby indicating uncontrolled asthma with also 62.3% of study participants had uncontrolled Asthma, no patient had controlled asthma. The study found that Asthma control has a significant effect on each domain of health-related quality of life of study subjects with a p value below 0.001. Those patients who had no impairment in any of the dimension of HRQoL had controlled asthma scores and as asthma control scores increase so does the impairment of the health-related quality of life. Majority of partially controlled asthma group reported with partially impaired HRQoL. These results propose that uncontrolled asthma meaningfully distresses HRQoL in activity limitations, emotional disturbances, sleep disturbance and increased symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that HRQOL is better in patients with controlled asthma while impairment in all domain of QOL seen in patients with partially controlled and uncontrolled asthma.