Title: Influence of anxiety and depression in asthma control in Ecuador
Abstract: Proper understandings of local factors related with poor asthma control are fundamental to care givers in order to develop health strategies. Recent literature says that anxiety and depression are common among patients with poor control asthma. It is imperative to acknowledge that cultural differences from country to country may impact in this association. It is an Observational, descriptive, anonymous cross-sectional survey study, conducted in the outpatient Respirology department of private hospitals in Ecuador. Patients with physician based diagnosis of asthma that agree to participate, filled the Spanish versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Asthma Control Test (ACT) questionnaires, previous or during his Respirology consult. Descriptive statistic was use to asses' demographical data, and chi-square test was use to asses any association between emotional disorders and asthma control. 73 patients finished both HADS and ACT questionnaire; mean age of patients with asthma was 55 years. 75.3% of the patients were female. Almost 70% of the patients had a high school degree or an elementary one. 13.7% of the patients smoked cigarettes', with a mean of cigarettes smoked per day of 15. Regarding to asthma control, 65.8% had a poor control. We found only a 2.7% of patients with anxiety and a 1.4% with depression. After doing the chi-square analysis we didn't find any association among these variables in our population. There are a high percentage of patients with poor asthma control but depression and anxiety does not seem to be associated with this phenomenon in our country.