Research on the level, components and the type of cooperativity in the patients with asthma

The patient’s cooperativity is the major factor which determines the patient’s adherence to doctor’s prescriptions and, consequently, the achievement of disease control. We proposed the “Evaluation of the cooperativity in asthma” questionnaire to evaluate the level, components and types of cooperativity in 141 patients with the mixed or atopic form of asthma (94.3 and 5.7%, respectively) at admission to hospital who were aware about their disease. The analysis of investigated parameters depending on the level of patients’ awareness of their condition (according to the “Awareness of patients about asthma” test), severity and duration of the disease, presence of alexithymia and social and economic index was done. It was found out that patients with asthma exaggerate the degree of their compliance. The general indices of cooperativity (GIC=58.1±7.3%) and understanding of danger (35.8±3.3%) in the patients who were aware about their disease were low. Qualitative characteristics of individual cooperativity components in examined patients are presented. Nearly 76% of the patients showed negative cooperativity inversely correlating with the severity of asthma and the duration of the disease. Positive cooperativity appeared to be directly related with the higher educational level, occupation and higher income level of the patients. Generally speaking, low average GIC ratings and low patients’ adherence to asthma treatment suggest their low cooperativity.