Impact of Asthma Severity and Asthma Control on Health-RelatedQuality of Life in Adult population

Objective: The objective of study was to compare the health -related quality of life (HRQoL) in controlled, partially controlled and poorly controlled asthmatic patients and to determine the most affected domains of HRQoL in asthma patients.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Pulmonology outpatient department, Karachi, for 6 months. The asthma quality of life questionnaire (AQLQ) and the asthma control test (ACT) were used to assess patients’ quality of life and asthma control and spirometry was performed. Patients of both genders, aged between 13 to 60 years were included. Asthma was diagnosed using Global Initiative for asthma (GINA) guidelines. Patients with pre-existing psychiatric illnesses, physical disabilities, reduced cardiac functional status, and acute exacerbation of asthma were excluded. The association of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV ), demographic characteristics, smoking status, biomass exposure, comorbidities, and BMI with AQLQ scores was also evaluated.Results: Out of 101 study participants, 74 (73.27%) were males and 27 (26.73%) females. The mean age of patients was 40.81 ± 15.49 years. Asthma control was suboptimal in 72% of participants. 49% had an ACT score below 15 and 23% had a total ACT score below 19 indicating poor control. Mean AQLQ score was 4.28 ± 1.35 indicating moderate health related quality of life in most of our participants with asthma.Conclusion: Most of the asthmatic participants had partially controlled and uncontrolled asthma. The ACT is a strong positive predictor of AQLQ, while age negatively correlates with HRQL in asthmatic patients. Patients with controlled asthma had better quality of life as compared to the patients with poor control of asthma as indicated by AQLQ. These asthmatic patients had poor quality of life in all domains of emotional, environmental, and activity limitation