Abstract
Background. The prevalence of anxiety in BA patients is considerably higher than in healthy people. It is little known how negative emotions can influence the quality of life (QL) of BA patients with cold airway hyperresponsiveness (CAHR) in winter.
Aim. To study the influence of anxiety on the QL of BA patients in the cold season of the year.
Methods. 111 BA patients were studied in winter. They were divided into two groups: with anxiety (68) and without it (43). To estimate QL a questionnaires SF-36 and AQLQ were used. «Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale» was applied to find out anxiety. CAHR was estimated by the results of 3-minute isocapnic hyperventilation with cold air.
Results. In the group of patients with anxiety in comparison with the patients without it there was a decrease of QL in domains PF (52.7±3.1 and 65.0±4.4, p<0.05), VT (45.3±2.3 and 59.2±2.8, p<0.001), SF (48.3±3.0 and 64.6±3.5, p<0.001) and MH (56.6±2.3 and 71.2±2.7, p<0.001) by SF-36, and in domains «Environment» (3.4±0.2 and 4.5±0.2, p<0.001) and «General Qol» (3.3±0.1 and 3.9±0.1, p<0.01) by AQLQ. The direct correlation was found out between FEV1 and «Environment» in the group without anxiety (r=0.41, p<0.01), whereas patients with anxiety did not have it. Hence, anxiety but not lung dysfunction is a dominating factor of QL decline in the latter case. The QL of patients with CAHR and anxiety gets considerably worse. The decline of QL of these patients in all domains except «Emotion» was revealed by AQLQ. The most significant worsening was obtained in domain «Environment».
Conclusion. Anxiety in BA patients has a negative influence on QL mainly on the psychosocial status. CAHR in winter also affects physical aspects of QL.
- © 2012 ERS