Psychosocial factors and asthma in a community sample of older adults.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between psychosocial factors and asthma in a population-based cohort study of older adults.

Methods: A total of 20,888 participants in the Norfolk cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study completed assessments that included details of lifetime self-reported doctor-diagnosed asthma, mood disorder history, social adversity experience, and social support.

Results: Doctor-diagnosed asthma was reported by 1699 (8.1%) participants. After adjusting for age, sex, preexisting myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes, cancer, cigarette smoking, social class, and area deprivation, the psychosocial factors most strongly (and independently) associated with asthma were major depressive disorder (P=.0001), adverse childhood circumstances (P=.005), reported impact of life events experienced in adulthood (P=.003), long-term difficulties in adulthood (P=.04), and negative aspects of confidant support (P=.002).

Conclusion: These results demonstrate that adverse psychosocial factors cluster among older adults with asthma. These findings may have implications for guiding improvements in asthma management.