A Retrospective Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Database Study Assessing the Factors Associated With Health Status Among United States Adults With Asthma

OBJECTIVES: Various factors may be associated with the health status of people with asthma that have not been previously investigated. The objective of this study was to assess the factors associated with health status among United States (US) adults with asthma.

METHODS: This retrospective Medical Expenditure Panel Survey study used the 2021 dataset (latest available at time of study) and included US adults (≥18 years) diagnosed with asthma. A multivariable logistic model assessed the association between the following factors and the dependent variable (good versus poor health status): age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, employment, health provision, marriage, income, mental health, regular physical activity, current smoker, pain, and limitations. The analysis was weighted to produce nationally representative estimates. The complex survey data structure was maintained using cluster and strata variables. The statistical significance threshold was 0.05.

RESULTS: The study sample included 2329 US adults with asthma, representing a weighted estimated population of 37,345,821. Of these, 29,356,375 had good health and 7,989,446 had poor health. Factors associated with greater odds of reporting good versus poor health in the multivariable logistic regression analysis included: private (versus no) health provision (odds ratio [OR]=2.63, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.10, 6.26), good (versus poor) mental health (OR=6.83, 95% CI=4.35, 10.72), regular (versus no regular) physical activity (OR=2.18, 95% CI=1.42, 3.34), little/moderate (versus quite a bit/extreme) pain (OR=3.51, 95% CI=2.38, 5.15) and no (versus any) limitation (OR=3.73, 95% CI=2.30, 6.06).

CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the factors significantly associated with good health status among US adults with asthma. The results of this study may be helpful at targeting interventions to improve the health of US adults with asthma. Additional studies are needed in future to determine any temporal associations between these findings.