gistfile1.md

Information about your asthma

Are you male/female

How old are you (in years)?

How long have you had asthma?

Are you prescribed a:

• blue inhaler (to relieve symptoms, e.g. ventolin)
• brown inhaler (an inhaled corticosteroid, e.g. becotide)
• another type of inhaler

If you take medication for your asthma other than a blue or brown inhaler, please describe it here:

Please answer the questions below in relation to your main asthma medication:

Please describe your strategy for taking your asthma medication:

• I take it regularly everyday, and I never do anything different
• I try to take it regularly, but sometimes forget
• I take it regularly, but less than the recommended (e.g. 1 puff instead of 2)
• I decide each day whether to use it, depending on how I feel
• I stop taking it when I feel my asthma is under control

morisky_forget Do you ever forget to take your medication?

morisky_careless Are you careless at times about taking your medication?

morisky_stopwhenbetter When you feel better, do you sometimes stop taking your medication?

morisky_stopsideeffects Sometimes if you feel worse when you take the medication, do you stop taking it?

Problems caused by asthma medications

Some people experience side effects when they take their asthma medications. We'd like to guage how serious you think each of these problems are, that is — how bad would it be if each of the following things happened to you?

Use the sliders to indicate how bad each of the situations would be.

Dragging the slider all the way to the right indicates that this is the worst thing ever that could happen; dragging it all the way to the right indicates that it wouldn't bother you at all.

Remember, we're asking how bad these situations would be, not whether you think they are likely.

Here are some problems that can be caused by NOT taking asthma medication

You have an asthma attack, and die in hospital later that day.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

You get a cold and become very wheezy, keeping you in bed for several days.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

You find yourself short of breath, and find it hard to climb a flight of stairs at work.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your asthma keeps you awake because you are coughing and short of breath.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

You have an asthma attack and end up in Accident and Emergency. You have to stay in hospital overnight, until your breathing improves.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Imagine that the following problems had been caused by taking asthma medications as directed:

Your voice becomes hoarse and it can be sore when talking.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your bones become weaker (a condition called osteoporosis) and you have to take calcium supplements

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your bones become weaker, and you suffer a broken wrist.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

You develop oral thrush (a yeast infection in the mouth) which gives you an unpleasant taste, soreness, a burning sensation on the tongue and difficulty swallowing?

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your face become quite puffy and rounded, and this is noticeable to your friends and family.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your skin becomes delicate. You find it is easy to cut or bruise yourself, and patches of skin become sore at times.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

Your appetite increases and you gain weight — 2 stones or 12kg - over the course of 6 months.

If this happened to you, how bad would it be on a scale from 0 to 100:

How likely are the conseuqences of asthma, and the side effects of asthma medications described above?

We'd like you to indicate how likely each of the situations described are to happen to you.

The slider below allows you to select a range indicating how likely each thing is to happen. For example:

• Selecting a range of 80 to 90 would mean you are between 80% and 90% sure it will happen — that is, you are quite certain that it is very likely to happen.

• Selecting a range of 10% to 90% would mean you think it might happen, but are very unsure about the chances.

• Selecting a range of 0% to 40% means you think it is quite unlikely to happen, but you can't be completely certain.

How likely is it that these things will happen to you?

Repeat scenarios above

Notes on analysis...

Calculate -

• severity
• mean likelihood
• uncertainty (max-min likelihood)
• for adherence/non-adherence (commission)

Adherence is going to be predicted by greater uncertainty, and in particular greater uncertainty for side-effects of adhering, provided severity meets a threshold...

So predict for repeat measures ancova

• severity*commission (essentially the main effect of severity but reversing to allow for whether it happens if we do or don't adhere)
• severitylikelihoodcommission
• uncertainty (more uncertainty predicts lower adherence)
• uncertainty*commission (especially when we have to do something for the outcome to happen)