Association between asthma and generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7) in Korean adolescents

Abstract

Background

Asthma is known to be associated with a variety of psychological disorders, such as anxiety, but the association between adolescent asthma and anxiety has not been investigated in detail.

Methods

We analyzed 2,322 physician-diagnosed adolescent asthma patients and 38,696 non-asthmatic adolescent participants from the 2020 Korean Youth Risk Behavior self-administered Survey. Anxiety status was assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaires. Multiple logistic regression analyses with complex sampling was performed with adjustments for multiple confounding variables (socioeconomic, health behavior, and psychological factors) to explore the association between GAD-7 scores and adolescent asthma.

Results

The asthma group had higher rates of anxiety (GAD-7 score ≥ 10) than the non-asthma group (5.0% and 6.7%, respectively; p < 0.001). After adjustment for multiple confounders, asthma was significantly associated with an increased risk of anxiety (GAD-7 score ≥ 10) (odds ratio [OR]: 1.09; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06–1.12).

Conclusion

Asthma is associated with an increased prevalence of anxiety in Korean adolescents.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• GAD-7
• asthma

Conflict of interest

None of the authors has any conflicts of interest.

Funding

None of the authors has any funding

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the conception, analysis, interpretation, revision, and final preparation of the manuscript. HJ Ryu served as the principal investigator and had full access to all study data. JH Chung and SJ Lee takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.