Psychosocial working conditions, asthma self-management at work and asthma morbidity: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Adverse psychosocial working conditions—in particular poor job decision latitude and poor social support at work—may impair the effective implementation of asthma self-management behaviour at work and may be associated with increased asthma morbidity. In this study, we investigate for the first time the association of job decision latitude and social support at work with (1) four asthma-specific self-management behaviours at work (i.e., physical activity, trigger avoidance, acute symptom management, and communication) and with (2) asthma morbidity. METHODS: A total of 221 employees with asthma recruited through three rehabilitation clinics completed questionnaires (response rate = 29.3%). Job decision latitude and social support were measured using items from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. The four asthma self-management behaviours were mainly assessed by self-developed items. We used the Asthma Control Test and the Marks Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire to measure asthma morbidity. We dichotomized all variables and conducted logistic regression analyses to calculate odds ratios with 95% CIs. RESULTS: Low job decision latitude and low social support were significantly associated with poorer trigger avoidance (odds ratios ≥ 2.09) and poorer acute symptom management (odds ratios ≥ 2.29); low social support was further related to significantly less communication (odds ratio = 2.82). Low job decision latitude and low social support were also associated with significantly poorer asthma control (odds ratios ≥ 1.95) and poorer asthma-specific quality of life (odds ratios ≥ 2.05). The relationships with asthma morbidity were attenuated after adjustment for the four asthma self-management behaviours (odds ratios ranging from 1.1 to 1.9). CONCLUSIONS: Adverse psychosocial working conditions are associated with poorer asthma self-management behaviour at work and with increased asthma morbidity. The latter association may be mediated by asthma self-management behaviour. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register, registration number: DRK S00011309, date of registration: 22.12.2016. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13601-019-0264-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.