Asthma and Health Related Quality of Life Among Adult American Indians

Patients with asthma have impaired quality of life. Little was known about Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among adult American Indians with asthma.

Method Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) provided asthma prevalence and HRQoL among adult American Indians.

Results Results from US 2005 BRFSS data indicated that American Indian adults reported significant higher prevalence than Non-Hispanic White adults of lifetime (18.2% vs. 12.7%, P<0.001) and current asthma (12.9% vs. 8.1%, P<0.001). Adults with current asthma tended to report poor general health and had significantly more physically unhealthy days and unhealthy physical or mental days, compare with adults never having had asthma.

Among adults with current asthma, American Indians reported poorer HRQoL than Non-Hispanic White with more physical unhealthy days (11.1 days vs. 7.1 days, P<0.001), mental unhealthy days (10.4 days vs. 5.6 days, P<0.001), and unhealthy physical or mental days (15.6 days vs. 10.6 days, P<0.001). Results were consistent in both genders and all age groups. Patients with lower household incomes, having more asthma symptoms tend to report more unhealthy days, physically and/or mentally, in both American Indians and Whites. American Indian patients tended to report more unhealthy days than Whites with similar asthma severity.

Conclusion Asthma posed more of a health burden on American Indian patients with higher prevalence of and impaired quality of life. People with more asthma symptoms reported more unhealthy days.