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Adapting to asthma: are some asthma effects acceptable?
Elizabeth A Barley1, Paul W Jones
1Department of Medicine, Respiratory Medicine, Cardiac and Vascular Sciences, St. George's, University of London, London, United Kingdom. elizabeth.barley@virgin.net
Summary
Patients with asthma may accept some health effects, but they do not discount these impacts when rating their overall health status. This study explored patient acceptance of asthma symptoms and its effect on quality-of-life scores.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonary Medicine
- Quality of Life Research
- Patient-Reported Outcomes
Background:
- Health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) assessments rely on patient perception of their condition.
- Asthma, a chronic respiratory disease, may lead patients to adapt to and accept certain symptoms over time.
- Understanding patient acceptance of asthma effects is crucial for accurate HRQoL measurement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the hypothesis that patients accept some asthma effects and subsequently discount their importance in health ratings.
- To investigate whether patients devalue symptoms they deem acceptable.
- To compare the validity of current, acceptable, and unacceptable St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) scores.
Main Methods:
- Surveyed 80 asthma patients regarding the acceptability of SGRQ-listed asthma effects.
- Calculated scores based on experienced yet acceptable asthma effects.
- Correlated SGRQ scores (current, acceptable, unacceptable) with various asthma-related variables.
Main Results:
- Acceptability of SGRQ items correlated with established severity weights (rho = -0.65, p < 0.0001).
- Some severe asthma effects were reported as acceptable by patients.
- Patients accepting greater health impairment were older and had more severe disease.
- Unacceptable health status showed weaker correlations with asthma variables compared to current health status.
Conclusions:
- Asthma patients do accept certain health impairments associated with their condition.
- Patients do not appear to discount acceptable asthma effects when completing detailed health status questionnaires like the SGRQ.
- The findings suggest that current health status, rather than an 'acceptable' health status, is a more valid measure in this context.
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