Abstract

Psychosocial and other factors that may affect patient self care in acute asthma were investigated in 210 asthmatic adults recruited from general practice and hospital clinics. Interviews and self complete questionnaires were used to assess patients' management of a hypothetical slow onset and rapid onset attack of asthma, attitudes to asthma, family support, psychiatric morbidity, recent asthma morbidity, and knowledge of drug treatment. The patients with the highest morbidity from asthma delayed longest before taking appropriate action in the hypothetical acute attack. One in four patients expressed strong feelings of stigma and pessimism about being asthmatic, but attitudes were only weakly associated with behaviour. Other factors showed no significant relation to self care. The results suggest that there is no single important factor or group of factors governing patients' management of acute asthma. Health education might therefore prove more effective if it paid less attention to the possible cause or causes of poor self care and instead offered pragmatic advice on changing behaviour.