Table 2—

Demographic, clinical and psychological characteristics of near-fatal asthma (NFA) patients by presence or absence of alexithymia

	Alexithymic	Nonalexithymic	p-value
Subjects n	64	115
Demographic data
Age yrs	60±17	45±18	<0.001⁺
Male	37	43	ns^§
Level of education			0.001^§
Basic	28	12
Primary	58	52
Intermediate/higher	14	36
Chronic asthma characteristics
Time with asthma yrs	22±15	19±14	ns⁺
Relatives with NFA	11	7	ns^§
Current smoker	11	27	0.012^§
NSAID intolerance	20	12	ns^§
Severe persistent asthma^#	62	47	0.056^§
Emergency visits for asthma in past year	59	46	ns^§
Ever hospitalised for asthma %	70	54	0.028^§
Ever had a very severe asthma exacerbation^¶	49	27	0.003^§
Ever intubated for asthma	16	13	ns^§
Medical control visits
None	31	31	ns^§
Regular with pneumologist or allergist	29	29	ns^§
FEV₁ % pred	71±28	74±22	ns⁺
Regular use of inhaled corticosteroids	69	50	0.013^§
Regular use of oral corticosteroid	31	18	0.038^§
Psychological tests
Psychiatric disorder by GHQ	66	42	0.002^§
Total TAS score	81.9±6.7	59.2±9.5	<0.001⁺
IDE subscale	27.0±5.8	17.6±6.2	<0.001⁺
COM subscale	29.5±5.0	20.2±5.6	<0.001⁺
EOT subscale	18.8±3.4	15.5±3.5	<0.001⁺
IMG subscale	15.9±4.4	12.1±4.8	<0.001⁺

Data are presented as mean±sd or percentage. NSAID: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume in one second; % pred: percentage of the predicted value; GHQ: General Health Questionnaire 19; TAS: Toronto Alexithymia Scale 17; IDE: difficulty identifying feelings; COM: difficulty communicating feelings; EOT: externally oriented thinking; IMG: capacity to fantasise; ns: nonsignificant. ^#: Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) classification 16; ^¶: involving mechanical ventilation, respiratory failure (pH <7.30 and/or arterial carbon dioxide tension >6.65 kPa (>50 mmHg)) or intensive care unit admission; ⁺: unpaired t-test; ^§: Chi-squared test.