Sociodemographic Factors and its Impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among Adult Asthma Patients in a Private Specialist Hospital in Malaysia

Objectives: The present study aimed to explore the factors associated to asthma and HRQoL of patients. Asthma and Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases implicate severe restrictions on physical, social and emotional aspects of the patients' life. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a patient derived measurement that defines the functional effects of illness and treatment, as perceived by the patient. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study comprised of 100 asthma patients sampled in the outpatient department of KPJ Seremban Specialist Hospital. Mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (Mini-AQLQ) with two sections was used as instrument in this study. The first section comprises six (6) Sociodemographic questions and the second section comprises fifteen (15) questions of HRQoL covering four main domains such as emotional, activity, symptoms and environmental. Results: The sociodemographic factor that correlated positively with HRQoL in all domains of the AQLQ was the higher education level of patients. Factors that negatively influenced the entire AQLQ domain were the older age of the patients and lower occupation status. The most affected domain of AQLQ due to asthma is the emotional domain and the least affected domain is the activity domain. Conclusion: This study represents that age decreased the HRQoL of patients and concluded that higher education level contributes to better HRQoL scores and implies that higher education plays a pivotal role in HRQoL and we believe that it can be improve by reinforcing Health education.