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Assessing the interrelationship between asthma and obesity self-management behaviors

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Abstract

Asthma and obesity are common coexisting conditions with increasing prevalence and substantial morbidity. This study examines the inter-relationship between illness and treatment beliefs in asthma and obesity and how they influence self-management behaviors. Overweight and obese adults ≥ 18 years with asthma were recruited from primary care and pulmonary practices in New York, NY and Denver, CO (n = 219). Path analysis was used to examine the relationship between asthma, weight and exercise-related illness and medication beliefs and SMB. Necessity beliefs about asthma medications and diet were associated with better medication adherence and healthier dietary behaviors (β = 0.276, p = < 0.001, β = 0.148, p = 0.018 respectively) whereas concerns about these self-care activities were associated with poorer adherence and worse dietary behaviors (β = − 0.282, p < 0.001, β = − 0.188, p = 0.003 respectively). We found no statistically significant association of exercise behaviors with any other weight or asthma illness or treatment beliefs. Our study demonstrates that necessity and concerns about treatment are associated with adherence in asthma and obesity. The lack of association of exercise behaviors with any asthma or weight related beliefs may reflect limited awareness of the impact of weight on asthma and warrants additional research.

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Abbreviations

SMB:

Self-management behaviors

SMP:

Self-management programs

CSM:

Common-sense model of illness representation

MARS:

Medication Adherence Rating Scale

FBC:

Food behavior checklist

IPAQ:

International physical activity questionnaire

B-IPQ:

Brief illness perceptions questionnaire

BMQ:

Brief medication questionnaire

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Funding

The study was funded by R01HL129198, NHLBI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave Levy Place, Box 1232, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Nikita Agrawal & Juan P. Wisnivesky

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Jenny L. Lin, Jyoti Ankam, Juan P. Wisnivesky & Alex Federman

  3. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA

    Fernando Holguin

Authors
  1. Nikita Agrawal
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  2. Jenny L. Lin
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  3. Jyoti Ankam
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  4. Fernando Holguin
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  5. Juan P. Wisnivesky
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  6. Alex Federman
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Correspondence to Nikita Agrawal.

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Conflict of interest

Juan P. Wisnivesky has received honorarium from Sanofi, Banook, PPD and Atea and research grants from Sanofi, Regeneron and Arnold Consultants. Fernando Holguin has receievedmember adjudication committee for ASPEN Trial and INSMED. Nikita Agrawal, Jenny L. Lin, Jyoti Ankam, and Alex Federman have not disclosed any competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and University of Colorado, Denver.

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All items attached with this document have been approved for publication.

Human and animal rights and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Agrawal, N., Lin, J.L., Ankam, J. et al. Assessing the interrelationship between asthma and obesity self-management behaviors. J Behav Med 47, 62–70 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-023-00424-8

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