The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on Health Related Quality of Life in Adult Patients with Asthma
Raed Abdullah Alharbi *
Department of Public Health, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah-11952, Saudi Arabia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: Asthma patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impacted by a number of socioeconomic factors, including stress, income levels, and educational levels, which have been connected to asthma in various ways. Asthma is a chronic lung disease that results in a range of respiratory issues that have a substantial impact on an adult patient's quality of life in terms of their physical and mental well-being as well as their ability to engage in certain activities. Asthma can also be made worse by several linked issues. Among the most important categories of these issues are socioeconomic factors, including stress, income levels, and educational levels.
Aim: This study aims to investigate the impact of these socioeconomic factors on health-related quality of life.
Methodology: Publicly open-source data from the United States Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System was used in this research. It is a telephone-based health survey that gathers information from US citizens. The Statistical Analysis System (9.4 version) was used for various descriptive, inferential, and predictive analysis techniques in order to achieve the aim of this research.
Results: Of the 461,436 individuals in the BRFSS 2014 data, 42,875 are current adult asthma patients. However, of these asthmatic patients, 650 have elevated stress levels, 20,605 have low incomes, and 21,692 have low levels of education. Each socioeconomic factor and measures of health-related quality of life were statistically significantly correlated, according to all p-values of various analyses.
Conclusions: According to the study's findings, adult asthma patients with these socioeconomic factors are more likely than those without them to have a lower health-related quality of life.
Keywords: Asthma, BRFSS, health informatics, HRQoL, socioeconomic factors