Health-Related Quality of Life of Patients With Asthma During the Pandemic of COVID-19

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lower respiratory tract which derives from a combination of genetic predisposition with environmental exposure to several factors. It is a chronic respiratory disease that results in morbidity, mortality, and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL). It is estimated that 334 million people have asthma worldwide. Nowadays, the COVID-19 epidemic causes stress not only to healthy people but also to people with unhealthy conditions. Excess psychological stress (either in quality, quantity, frequency, and/or duration) could push susceptible individuals to ultimately develop clinical asthma. Depression was significantly associated with asthma interference with daily activities, breathlessness, night symptoms, use of bronchodilators, and poor compliance with medical treatment. Covid-19 pandemic induced the countries around the world to require from its citizens not to ask for health care support rather than in emergency situations and through utilizing telemedicine. This action aims to control spreading the infection with viruses as well as to reduce the workload on the healthcare providers. Although asthma is not listed as one of the chronic conditions that might complicate coronavirus infections, asthma people might have a high-stress level that might induce their asthma attack which consequentially reflects on their quality of life. People with asthma have a unique experience rather than people with other health conditions during COVID-19. Patients with asthma experience a lot of stressors that might induce asthma and impaired their HRQOL such as overuse of antiseptic substances, stay home with a sedentary lifestyle, the sudden shift to telemedicine, and electronic work from home. Also, as a result of the similarity of asthma symptoms with coronavirus symptoms, the patient might have a continuous sense of uncertainty that s/he is infected with the COVID-19 virus, and this suspicion can increase the psychological overburden on these patients. Therefore, all these stressors should be evaluated to recognize their health needs and the kind of social and health support that should be provided to them during the pandemic time. Also, Identifying the predictors of HRQOL among patients with asthma during the pandemic of COVID-19 is urgently required. A cross-sectional analytical design will be utilized. The study participants will be adults (18 years or older) who have been diagnosed with bronchial asthma or pulmonary disease.