Symptom Experiences, Sleep Quality and Quality of Life for Patients with Asthma

The purpose of this study was to examine symptom experiences, sleep quality, and quality of life in asthma patients and investigate any correlation among these factors. The study was conducted on 146 asthma patients that visited the Internal Medicine Department of Allergies at a hospital in Korea from March to June, 2015. Tools that were originally developed by Oh (1999) were used to measure the symptom experience of asthma patients. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) while quality of life was measured by the Short Form 36-Items Heath Survey (SF-36). The dates were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using the SPSS 20.0 program. Symptom experiences of asthma patients showed a positive relation with sleep quality (r=.468, p<.001) and negative relationship with quality of life; PCS (r=-495, p<.001) and MCS (r=-.411, p<.001). The symptom experiences of an asthma patient along with sleep quality and quality of life turned out to be correlated. Therefore, this study is expected to be utilized as a basis for the development of assessment tools and arbitration programs to elucidate symptom experiences of asthma patients from various aspects and enhance their sleep quality and quality of life.