Exposure to intimate partner violence may lead to uncontrolled asthma

SAN ANTONIO — Patients with asthma who experienced intimate partner violence had higher predicted rates of uncontrolled asthma, according to an abstract presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.

In a longitudinal observational study, Eileen Wang, MD, MPH, of National Jewish Health and University of Colorado School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed 45 adults with asthma to observe how intimate partner violence (IPV) is related to poor asthma control after 3 to 6 months.

Based on validated measures of emotional, psychological and physical violence by the patient’s partner, researchers determined 44% of patients had previous exposure to IPV.

Researchers then compared psychosocial factors, including anxiety, depression, perceived stress and social isolation, between those with and without previous exposure to IPV to see how IPV influenced these factors and which factors predicted uncontrolled asthma.

Between 3 to 6 months from baseline, researchers found that 75% of those with prior IPV had uncontrolled asthma — based on an Asthma Control Test score of 19 or less — whereas only 36% of those without IPV had uncontrolled asthma (P < .01).

In terms of psychosocial factors, researchers observed that previous exposure to IPV predicted higher anxiety (P = .007), perceived stress (P = .02) and depression (P = .03).

Further, uncontrolled asthma was predicted by increased anxiety (P = .02), perceived stress (P = .02) and social isolation (P < .001). Depression did not predict uncontrolled asthma, according to researchers.

These results demonstrate that elevated anxiety and perceived stress from IPV are related to uncontrolled asthma.

“Effect sizes were large for these statistically significant associations,” Wang and colleagues wrote. “Identifying key psychosocial factors would lead to practical and accessible interventions to buffer the increased asthma morbidity burden in this high-risk population.”