Location

Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal

Category

Respiratory

Recruitment status

Recruitment complete, follow-up currently in progress

Summary

Uncontrolled asthma is the #1 cause of asthma-related mortality, which claims the lives of nearly 450 Canadians per year. Achieving optimal asthma control relies upon several behavioral factors (e.g., self-monitoring, treatment adherence) that may be influenced by chronic negative mood states and anxiety disorders. Those disorders may influence asthma outcomes by altering the way patients cognitively interpret and behave towards their disease, and may result in poor self-management and worse levels of asthma control. Though previous studies have reported associations between mood and anxiety disorders and worse asthma control and/or asthma-related quality of life, no studies to date that have assessed the extent to which mood and anxiety disorders are predictive of worse asthma control and quality of life.
As such, the present proposal has two main objectives: to examine the extent to which mood and/or anxiety disorders are independent risk factors for worse asthma control and quality of life; and to assess the cognitive (e.g., illness perceptions) and behavioral (e.g., treatment adherence) mechanisms by which this may occur.