Relationship between psychosocial factors and asthma morbidity

A general practice study was designed to describe certain psychosocial attributes of asthma patients and to relate these to reported asthma morbidity in the previous two years. A postal questionnaire on their respiratory morbidity was completed in September 1983 and again in September 1985 by 207 asthma patients. They then completed a postal questionnaire concerning their attitudes to asthma and level of family support. The findings revealed a marked degree of psychosocial morbidity among patients. Family support showed no significant associations with past or current levels of morbidity, or with changes in morbidity over the previous two years. In contrast, negative attitudes to asthma were correlated with significantly higher levels of morbidity, the strongest associations being found between patients' present attitudes and their most recent level of morbidity. These findings in conjunction with work carried out elsewhere suggest that high levels of asthma morbidity bring about a negative attitude to the condition which in turn contributes towards continuing morbidity.