Bronchial asthma is a complex disease and it brings limitations to patients' quality of life. In this research we intend to study the relationship of sociodemographic (gender, age and educational level), medical (severity of the disease, duration and clinical type) and psychological variables (cognitions, emotions and behaviour) with patients' quality of life. Fifty asthmatic patients from the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Immunoallergic diseases of Coimbra's University Hospitals completed five self-report questionnaires that measured the psychological variables under study. Medical data were also collected. Our results suggest that quality of life is related to a set of variables that can be named as biopsychosocial (e.g., a poor quality of life is related to a higher age, lower level of education, a more negative attitude towards asthma, named "stigma", disfunctional cognitions and behavioural/emotional problems associated to asthma). Implications in relation with the treatment are also presented.
bronchial asthma; bio psychosocial variables; quality of life
