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Discomfort Intolerance in Relation to Asthma Outcomes

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Abstract

Anxiety symptoms and disorders are common among those with asthma and contribute to poorer health outcomes. Building on work examining anxiety-related cognitive-affective risk factors in asthma, the current study sought to explore associations between discomfort intolerance (i.e., the inability to withstand or tolerate unpleasant bodily sensations) in relation to lung function, asthma control, and quality of life. Participants were 61 adults with asthma (61.9% female; 54.8% African American; Mage = 34.72, SD 13.58) who were administered a self-report assessment battery and a lung function assessment. We found that, above and beyond the effects of anxiety sensitivity-physical concerns, greater discomfort intolerance was significantly associated with poorer lung function (9.5% variance), asthma control (9.9% variance), and overall asthma-related quality of life (11.7% variance) as well as the specific quality of life domains of activity limitations (12.6% variance) and asthma symptoms (6.8% variance). Thus, individuals with asthma who are unable to tolerate physical discomfort may be at risk for poor asthma outcomes and interventions to reduce discomfort intolerance could potentially be useful in this population.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by a seed grant from the University of Cincinnati Leadership Empowerment Advancement for Women STEM Faculty (UC LEAF) Program awarded to Alison C. McLeish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Alison C. McLeish, Kristen M. Kraemer & Emily M. O’Bryan

  2. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Alison C. McLeish

  3. Division of General Medicine and Primary Care Section for Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Kristen M. Kraemer

Authors
  1. Alison C. McLeish
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Correspondence to Alison C. McLeish.

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Conflict of Interest

Alison C. McLeish, Kristen M. Kraemer and Emily M. O’Bryan declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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McLeish, A.C., Kraemer, K.M. & O’Bryan, E.M. Discomfort Intolerance in Relation to Asthma Outcomes. Cogn Ther Res 43, 24–31 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-018-9965-y

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