scholarly journals Understanding asthma-specific quality of life: moving beyond asthma symptoms and severity

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 680-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Stucky ◽  
Cathy D. Sherbourne ◽  
Maria Orlando Edelen ◽  
Nicole K. Eberhart

This study identifies the unique contributions of asthma severity, symptoms, control and generic measures of quality of life (QoL) to asthma-specific QoL, as measured by the 12-item RAND Negative Impact of Asthma on Quality of Life scale (RAND-IAQL-12).Using a sample of 2032 adults with asthma, we conducted multiple regression analyses that sequentially examined hypothesised predictors of asthma-specific QoL. The change in variance accounted for and total unique variance accounted for is calculated as hypothesised predictors are added in each step.Our results indicate that asthma severity and asthma symptoms are strong predictors of asthma-specific QoL only when not controlling for aspects of asthma control. In regression models that include other aspects of asthma control, the contributions of both asthma symptoms and severity were substantially reduced, with asthma control and aspects of QoL related to social roles and activities emerging as the strongest predictors of asthma-specific QoL.These findings suggest that researchers measuring the impact of asthma on QoL should also consider the importance of asthma control as measured by the RAND Asthma Control Measure (RAND-ACM) and generic QoL scales that measure aspects of daily life that are uniquely affected by asthma.

Author(s):  
Germina-Alina Cosma ◽  
Alina Chiracu ◽  
Amalia Raluca Stepan ◽  
Marian Alexandru Cosma ◽  
Marian Costin Nanu ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to analyze athletes’ quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 249 athletes between 15 and 35 of age, M = 21.22, SD = 5.12. The sample was composed of eight Olympic Games medalists, three European medalists, 67 international medalists, and 63 national medalists. The instruments used were: (1) COVID-19 Anxiety Scale, (2) Athlete Quality of Life Scale, (3) Impact of Pandemic on Athletes Questionnaire, and (4) International Personality Item Pool (IPIP Anxiety, Depression, and Vulnerability Scales). The results indicate significant differences in COVID-19 anxiety depending on the sport practiced, F (9239) = 3.81, p < 0.01, showing that there were significant differences between sports. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic mediates the relationship between trait anxiety and the athletes’ quality of life. The percentage of mediation was 33.9%, and the indirect effect was −0.11, CI 95% (−0.18, −0.03), Z = −2.82, p < 0.01. Trait anxiety has an increasing effect on the intensity of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 0.23, CI 95% (.10, 0.35), Z = 3.56, p < 0.01, and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has a decreasing effect on quality of life, −0.47, CI 95% (−0.67, −0.27), Z = −4.62, p < 0.01. Gender and age did not moderate the relationship between the negative impact of COVID-19 and athletes’ quality of life. The results of the study highlighted the impact that social isolation and quarantine have on athletes’ affective well-being.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 532-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Rodrigues Gazzotti ◽  
Oliver Augusto Nascimento ◽  
Federico Montealegre ◽  
James Fish ◽  
Jose Roberto Jardim

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of asthma on activities of daily living and on health status in patients with controlled, partially controlled, or uncontrolled asthma in Brazil. METHODS: We used data related to 400 patients in four Brazilian cities (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Curitiba), obtained in a survey conducted throughout Latin America in 2011. All study subjects were > 12 years of age and completed a standardized questionnaire in face-to-face interviews. The questions addressed asthma control, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and school/work absenteeism, as well as the impact of asthma on the quality of life, sleep, and leisure. The level of asthma control was determined in accordance with the Global Initiative for Asthma criteria. RESULTS: Among the 400 respondents, asthma was controlled in 37 (9.3%), partially controlled in 226 (56.5%), and uncontrolled in 137 (34.2%). The numbers of patients with uncontrolled or partially controlled asthma who visited the emergency room, who were hospitalized, and who missed school/work were higher than were those of patients with controlled asthma (p = 0.001, p = 0.05, and p = 0.01, respectively). Among those with uncontrolled asthma, the impact of the disease on activities of daily living, sleep, social activities, and normal physical exertion was greater than it was among those with controlled or partially controlled asthma (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In Brazil, asthma treatment should be monitored more closely in order to increase treatment adherence and, consequently, the level of asthma control, which can improve patient quality of life and minimize the negative impact of the disease.


2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 378-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Stallard ◽  
Eileen Joyce

AIMS and MethodThis study aimed to compare the subjective quality of life and attitudes to medication between groups of patients with schizophrenia taking either olanzapine or traditional antipsychotic medication.ResultsThe two groups were matched for age, gender, length of illness and antipsychotic group demonstrated more extrapyramidal side-effects (EPS) and akathisia. Within this group, those with EPS scored lower on the affect balance scale of the Lancashire Quality of Life Scale than those without. More patients in the olanzapine group reported that medication was taken to prevent symptoms returning.Clinical ImplicationsThese results lend support to the hypothesis that the presence of EPS impairs quality of life and suggest that olanzapine therapy may improve patients' attitudes to medication.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Cindy Mendes ◽  
Henrique Pereira

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the exceptional situation that has been experienced on a global scale since 2020, it is essential to assess the impact of COVID-19 in several areas and domains. Therefore, this research seeks to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on work-related quality of life (WRQoL) in a Portuguese-speaking sample, through the lens of sexual orientation. One thousand, five hundred and seventy-seven individuals participated in this study, of which 1396 (88.5%) self-identified as heterosexual, 95 (6.0%) as gay or lesbian, and 87 (5.5%) as bisexual. Participants responded to the “Work-Related Quality of Life” scale, the “Fear of COVID-19” scale, and the “Negative Impact of COVID-19” scale. Bisexuals scored higher on “Fear of COVID-19” and “Negative Impact of COVID-19” than heterosexual, and gay, or lesbian participants. Differences between sexual orientations for all dimensions of WRQoL were found: heterosexual participants scored higher on general well-being, home–work interface, career satisfaction, working conditions, and lower on stress at work, compared to bisexual, and gay, or lesbian participants. Gay or lesbian participants scored lower than heterosexual and bisexual participants on career satisfaction and working conditions. Sexual orientation, the fear of COVID-19, and the negative impact of COVID-19 were significant predictors of overall WRQoL (explaining 13% of variance). Moderation analysis also showed that sexual orientation is a significant moderator of the association between the fear of COVID-19, the negative impact of COVID-19, and WRQoL. LGB people (especially bisexuals) suffer more severe impacts of COVID-19 and have lower WRQoL than heterosexual people. Inevitably, this has consequences in terms of mental health and overall quality of life for sexual minorities, thus reinforcing the need to adopt inclusive policies in organizations and companies to improve their WRQoL.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Shawn M. Fitzgerald ◽  
Jian Li ◽  
Phillip D. Rumrill ◽  
Malachy Bishop ◽  
William R. Merchant

Rehabilitation counseling researchers seeking to more fully understand the phenomenon of psychosocial adaptation to disability are devoting increased attention to the impact of disability on quality of life (QOL). This impact has been of particular interest among multiple sclerosis (MS) researchers. The complex etiology, unpredictable nature, and the multiple functional limitations attendant to MS have been identified as major impediments in research efforts to develop psychometrically sound and clinically sensitive tools to evaluate the impact of MS on QOL. This article presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis of the factor structure of the Quality of Life Scale (QOLS), which has been used in several studies to evaluate the impact of MS on QOL. The QOLS was developed to assess the self-reported QOL of people with chronic pain and evaluates the degree of satisfaction with 7 distinct domains of personal and social activity. The developers’ original principal component analysis revealed a single-factor model with high levels of internal consistency reliability. It is not clear, however, how the 1-factor model fits the population of individuals with MS and how the 7 items perform in terms of their measurement of the single factor. The 1-factor structure of the QOLS did not fit the data well in this sample of individuals with MS. Subsequent model iterations that incorporated 3 error covariances provided increasingly better fit and resulted in a reasonable model fit to the data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Pisano ◽  
Alberto Giachero ◽  
Cristian Rugiero ◽  
Melanie Calati ◽  
Paola Marangolo

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected people’s mental health resulting in severe psychological consequences. One of the leading causes of long-term disability worldwide is aphasia. The language changes experienced by a person with aphasia (PWA) often have a sudden and long-lasting negative impact on social interaction, quality of life, and emotional wellbeing. The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the different psychosocial dimensions which affect PWA.MethodsThis retrospective study included 73 PWA and 81 elderly matched controls. All patients were in the chronic phase. They were all discharged from rehabilitation services, which left them with different degrees of language deficits (i.e., severe vs. mild vs. moderate). All participants were administered the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) through an online survey. PWA also took part in the stroke and aphasia quality of life scale questionnaire (SAQOL-39).ResultsAlthough the comparison between two different time points [one month before (T0) and one month after the lockdown (T1)] led to a significant increase in depression and anxiety symptoms in both groups (PWA vs. control), lower rates of depression and anxiety were found in PWA compared to the healthy group. Significant deterioration was also present in PWA in the communication and psychosocial scales of the SAQOL-39 test, which correlated with the observed changes in the psychological domains. Interestingly, the results were not significantly influenced by the degree of aphasia severity. Similarly, in both groups, none of the demographic variables (gender, age, and educational level) significantly affected the scores in the different subscales.ConclusionsThis evidence which, at first glance, seems to suggest that PWA have been partially spared from the impact of COVID-19, actually masks a dramatic situation that has always characterized this population. Indeed, given that PWA already live in a state of social isolation and emotional instability, these conditions might have, paradoxically, limited the effects of the coronavirus. However, as our results showed a deterioration in the emotional state and communication skills of our patients, possible solutions are discussed in order to prevent further decline of their cognitive abilities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. e100037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Guo ◽  
Shumin Qu ◽  
Hongyun Qin

BackgroundStudies conducted outside of China have found that stigma can predict low quality of life, and research in China has shown that stigma has an impact on the quality of life of convalescent patients with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, there is no indepth research on the impact of stigma on the quality of life of patients.AimsTo research the correlation of stigma and the subjective quality of life of persons with chronic schizophrenia in the community.MethodsWe adopted a stratified sampling method. General questionnaire, quality of life scale and stigma scale were given to 602 persons with chronic schizophrenia in the community.ResultsThe mean (SD) value of the Subjective Quality of Life Scale total scores was 32.99 (13.85). The mean (SD) value of the total stigma scores was 43.50 (5.02). After correlation analysis and multivariate stepwise regression analysis, it was shown that the total scores for self-stigma and each factor were positively correlated with subjective quality of life (r=0.462,p<0.001), psychosocial factors (r=0.517,p<0.001), and symptoms and adverse reaction factor scores (r=0.363,p<0.001), and the correlation coefficients were statistically significant.ConclusionsThe higher the stigma of persons with schizophrenia in the community, the lower the subjective quality of life is. This suggests that reduction of self-stigma should be considered in the improvement of the quality of life of persons with schizophrenia in the community.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Makara-Studzińska ◽  
Małgorzata Wołyniak ◽  
Karolina Kryś

Schizophrenia is the most severe and most debilitating mental illness, which is one of the first ten causes of disability in youth and elderly people. Regarding many consequences that schizophrenia brings for individual and social functioning of ill people, their assessment of the quality of their lives seems to be interesting. The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence and severity of anxiety and depression as well as analysis of the impact level of anxiety and depression on life quality of people with schizophrenia. A group of patients with schizophrenia from psychiatric centers was involved in a study. A set of methods, included: author's questionnaire, the quality of life scale WHOQOL-BREF, and the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS). Anxiety disorders occurred in more than 78% of respondents, while depressive disorders in more than half of respondents. The more severe anxiety and depressive disorders, the lower values were observed in all tested components of quality of life. The study of quality of life of the mentally ill patients should be conducted on a continuous basis in order to explore the current factors influencing the improvement of their psychophysical welfare. It is necessary to promote prohealthy mental lifestyle.


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