Factors associated with self-assessed asthma severity

• Published in: The Journal of asthma 2022, Vol.59 (4), p.691-696
• Main Authors: Bouhuis, Dennis, Giezeman, Maaike, Janson, Christer, Kisiel, Marta Alina, Lisspers, Karin, Montgomery, Scott, Nager, Anna, Sandelowsky, Hanna, Ställberg, Björn, Sundh, Josefin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: age; Aged; allergic rhinoconjunctivitis; Asthma - diagnosis; Asthma - drug therapy; Asthma - epidemiology; asthma control; Conjunctivitis, Allergic - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; level of education; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Self-assessed asthma severity; Severity of Illness Index; Sinusitis
• ISSN: 0277-0903; 1532-4303; 1532-4303
• DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2021.1871741

Asthma severity can be estimated as the level of medication needed to achieve asthma control or by the patient's subjective assessment. Factors associated with self-assessed asthma severity are still incompletely explored. The aim was to study factors associated with self-assessed moderate or severe asthma. In total, 1828 randomly selected asthma patients from primary (69%) and secondary (31%) care, completed a questionnaire including items about patient characteristics, comorbidity, the Asthma Control Test (ACT), emergency care visits and a scale for self-assessed asthma severity. Logistic regression was used to analyze associations with the dependent variable, self-assessed moderate or severe asthma in the entire study population and stratified by sex. Of the patients, 883 (45%) reported having moderate or severe asthma. Factors independently associated with self-assessed moderate or severe asthma were age >60 years (OR [95% CI] 1.98 [1.37-2.85]), allergic rhino-conjunctivitis (1.43 [1.05-1.95]), sinusitis (1.45 [1.09-1.93]), poor asthma control as measured by ACT