Abstract
This study was designed to clarify the relationships between the severity and the coping behaviors of asthmatics. Two hundred and ten in- and out- patients with bronchial astluma in an Osaka hospital completed the questionnaire. The subjects included 109 men and 101 women with a mean age of 51.8±11.8 years. Of these patients, 64 had intermittent asthma, 89 had mild level asthma, 39 had middle level asthma, and 18 had serious level asthma. Six factors: l)positive adjustment, 2)direct action, 3)independence, 4)reappraisal of the problem, 5)optimizing, and 6)escape, were extracted from the 22 items of the scale of behaviors for asthmatics by factor analysis. These were found to well reflect the coping behaviors' classification described by Lazarus & Folkman (1984) or Okaya (1988). The patients with middle and serious levels of asthma significantly have more difficulty using 'optimistic' behavior than other groups. Compared to the other groups, the patients of serious level used 'positive adjustment' more than other groups, and used 'direct action' less than other groups, but these differences were not significant.
