Evidence suggests that psychosocial factors are important in severe asthma. Wider research and theory highlight complex, bi-directional pathways by which interactions may occur. This thesis took a psychological perspective to investigating these. A systematic review including 17 interventions targetting psychosocial factors in adults with severe asthma highlighted that most do not explicitly consider the multiple pathways by which psychosocial factors and asthma interact. This may explain their limited effectiveness and suggests scope for their improvement, informed by further research. Such research requires adequate measures of important constructs. This thesis therefore identified, compiled and, where necessary, developed suitable measures of clinical outcomes, self-management behaviours, and key emotional and cognitive factors (perceived control, readiness to change). These were used, and in the case of a measure of readiness to change self-management also subjected to detailed testing, in an observational study of 132 adults with severe asthma. This investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between psychological factors and outcomes (asthma control, asthma-specific quality of life and severe attacks).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:501115 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Smith, Jane Rebecca |
| Publisher | University of East Anglia |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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