Department of Internal medicine, Pakchong Nana Hospital, Pakchong District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

Objective: To study the prevalence and factors associated with the level of asthma control in patients treated in the Asthma Clinic at Pak Chong Nana Hospital, Nakhon Ratchasima Province.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on asthma patients receiving treatment in the asthma clinic at Pak Chong Nana Hospital, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. The sample size was estimated using the population proportion statistics and the ordinal logistic regression was applied to analyze the factors associated with the level of asthma control, which was divided into 3 levels: good, partially controlled, and uncontrolled asthma. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.

Results: A total of 174 participants were enrolled in the study of which 53, 68, and 53 patients were found to have well-controlled, partially controlled, and uncontrolled asthma levels, respectively. On univariable ordinal logistic regression, it was found that height (OR=0.96; 95%CI: 0.92-0.99, p-value = 0.016), underlying diseases including gastroesophageal reflux disease (OR=2.91; 95%CI: 1.21-6.99, p-value = 0.017), trash fires (OR=1.85; 95%CI: 1.05-3.24, p-value = 0.031), stress (OR=3.61; 95%CI: 1.57-8.29, p-value = 0.002), respiratory tract infections (OR=1.90; 95%CI: 1.04-3.48, p-value = 0.036), treatment with cetirizine (OR=3.80; 95%CI: 1.06-13.51, p-value = 0.039) and budesonide MDI (OR=0.51; 95%CI: 0.29-0.89, p-value = 0.019) were significantly associated with the level of asthma control. Moreover, the risk factors namely stress (Adj. OR = 2.66; 95%CI 1.02 – 6.95) and salbutamol MDI (Adj. OR = 3.34; 95%CI 1.09 – 10.28) were found to be associated with the level of asthma control on a multivariable ordinal logistic regression analysis.

Conclusion: When controlling other confounding variables, stress and salbutamol MDI were significantly associated with the level of asthma control in the study. Therefore, for patients to be able to control their symptoms in the best possible way, caregivers should focus on assessing the patient's stress including the use of the patient's medication.