title: Health-related quality of life in Taiwanese patients with bronchial asthma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is primarily an assessment of how domains of life are affected by health. This study investigated the factors influencing HRQOL of Taiwanese patients with bronchial asthma.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the factors influencing HRQOL. The sample consisted of 242 outpatients with bronchial asthma. The Chinese language version of the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire was used to measure HRQOL. Data were analyzed using simple regression and multiple regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age, marital status, level of education, asthma severity, peak expiratory flow, and previous hospital admissions were found to be predictors of HRQOL. Gender, duration of disease, and history of emergency visits were not correlated with HRQOL. The variables entered in the HRQOL model accounted for 17.4% of the total variance (adjusted R(2)). The regression coefficients indicated that the mean scores increased 7.68 in patients with moderate to severe disease severity, and increased 7.34 in patients with a history of hospital admissions. The mean scores decreased 7.60 in married patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study found that marital status, asthma severity, and history of hospital admissions were major predictors of HRQOL in Taiwanese patients with bronchial asthma.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kwua-Yun
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chin-Pyng
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yu-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Muh-Lan
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology