| Popis: |
Background: Low adherence to the treatment is one of the main problems which hampers the achievement of asthma control. Aim: To study psychological characteristics of asthmatics, affecting adherence to treatment. Methods: 141 patients with mild (n=28), moderate (n=86) and severe asthma (n=27) were examined. The mean age was 44±1.2 years old, the mean duration of the disease was 6±0.8 years. The questionnaire of the assessment of adherence to treatment at asthma, Toronto Alexithymia Scale – TAS (G.Taylor, 1984), and self-questionnaire for identification of depression CES-D (M.M.Weissman et al., 1977) were used. Results: While self-filling questionnaire of the assessment of adherence to treatment the patients overestimated their compliance (self-assessment of compliance index was 100%). Therefore, we used the data from interviews with patients. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to adherence to treatment. The 1 st group included 34 patients with high adherence to treatment. The 2 nd group consisted of 107 patients who violated the regime of treatment and did not follow the prescriptions. The 2 nd group significantly differed from the 1 st one by low mean values of "compliancy index" (58.1±7.3 vs. 78.4±12.3%), high indices of TAS (66.2±2.3), low level of education and unemployment (14 vs. 3%). All patients had high safety needs (the mean index was 87.6±6.3%). The degree of adherence to treatment inversely correlated with asthma severity (Spearman9s R=-0,68), the duration of the disease (R=-0,54), the level of depression (R=-0.59). Conclusion: The severity and duration of asthma, alexithymia, poor education and unemployment have most influence on the degree of adherence to treatment in patients with asthma. |
