Asthma specific emotional profile of patients and partners
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment of the asthma specific emotional profile in individuals with asthma and their partners
IRAS ID
194305
Contact name
Judit Varkonyi-Sepp
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Asthma is a disease with a variety of causes, severity and response to treatment. There is research evidence that patients whose asthma is less well controlled suffer higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to healthy people. Research has also shown that individuals with asthma who suffer from psychological distress have worse asthma and poorer self-management. Interventions addressing these psychological disorders have, however, not led to improved asthma control. One possible reason is that increased anxiety and depression arise due to a range of differing emotions. As such, it is important to understand what 'basic emotions' are present in relationship to asthma, such as fear, disgust, sadness or anger and whether these differ from patient to patient. It is also important to understand how they change, through assessing whether there is difference between these emotions and/or their intensity when the asthma is stable and when it flares up. Informal carers of chronically ill patients have also been shown to have increased levels of psychological disorders. Patients and partners can be looked at as one functional unit, so called 'dyad' where one partner's well-being impacts on the other's and vica versa. Therefore it is also important to understand the partners' psychological processes similarly to that of the patients. This study will use questionnaires to identify participants’ asthma specific emotions and measure their intensities together with levels of anxiety and depression and perceived asthma control. Participants will be asked to complete two sets of questionnaires , one when the asthmatic partner is in stable condition and one when the disease worsens. Patients and partners will be asked to complete the questionnaires independently in their own homes and return them to the researchers by freepost. Returning the completed questionnaires will imply consenting to the study.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
17/WS/0009
Date of REC Opinion
17 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion