Introduction:

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that can significantly affect patients' quality of life.

Objective:

To measure quality of life and identify its determinants in patients with asthma.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 among asthma patients in Fez University hospital. Data were collected using an anonymous face to face questionnaire including sociodemographic and clinical data. Moroccan version of the SF12 scale was used to measure quality of life.SF-12 outcomes included the 8 domains, physical component and mental component summary scores, and the Short-Form Six-Dimension health utility score. uni-variate analysis were performed to measure association between quality of life and other factors, using Student's t test.

Results:

 We included 67 patients, 77.6% of whom were female, the mean age was 52.1±14.6 years and that of FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in seconds) 1.7±0.8ml, 77.3% were illiterate, 14.9% smokers, 15.0% diabetics, and 14.9% hypertensive, 82.1% had a stage 3 or 4 and 66.1 had controlled asthma.

The mean physical quality of life was 36.9±13.0, and mental quality of life 35.9±19.4.

Physical quality of life was more impaired in patients older than 50 years (m=32.9 vs. 43.3 (p=0.005)), illiterate (m=32.7vs 43.7 (p=0.022)), hypertensive (m=28.9 vs. 38.4 (p=0.032)) and patients with low FEV1 (r=0.29, p=0.02)

Mental quality of life was more impaired in patients aged over 50 years (m=30.1vs 45.2 (p=0.002)), in diabetics (m= 24.0 vs. 38.1(p=0.034)) and in patients with low FEV1 (r=0.3, p=0.018).

Conclusion :

Our results show an altered quality of life in asthmatics, hence the interest to take into account this aspect in the management of these patients.