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Asthma is an unpredictable, chronic disease with great
variability. Symptom onset can be gradual or abrupt. Patients
with asthma often experience higher level of stress then healthy
people and this can affect physical , psychological and social
well-being. This study explored the relationships among stress,
coping strategies and quality of life in adult asthmatic
patients. One hundred and thirty-two patients were recruited
from the Chest division and Asthma ＆ Allergy division of out-
patient department of a medical center by purposive sampling . A
structured questionnaire including a stress scale, a coping
scale, and a quality of life index were the instruments used to
collect information on stress, coping strategies and quality of
life from subject via structured interviews or self-reports.
There was a wide range of level of stress among adult asthmatic
patients. Physical stress was the greatest contributing factor,
and social stress theleast. Significant differences in stress
level were found to be related tofactors such as a patient''s
gender, religion, severity of disease andself-rated health.
"staying optimistic "was the most frequently employed coping
strategy, and "emotional venting " the least. Differences in
coping strategy depended on factors such as a patient''s age,
gender, religion, severity of disease and self-rated health.
Mean score of quality of life was 18.49. Among the five
dimensions of quality of life, " intimacy " ranked the highest,
and "environment" the lowest. Patient''s quality of life were
found to be related to factors such as severity of disease and
self- Multiple regression analysis indicated that, the lower
the total stress, the healthier the patient self-perceived,
and the more frequently the strategy of "staying optimistic" was
employed to cope with stress. Moreover, less frequent use of the
coping strategy of "letting nature take it''s course" was
correlated with better quality of life. These results explained
38.9﹪of the variance in quality of life. In conclusion, the
findings of this study may help nursing professionals to better
understand stress and coping strategies in adult asthmatic
patients. Thus, it would advance nurse''s competence of helping
patients to manage stress and coping effectively.
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