Associations Between Sleep Quality, Household Income and Medication Adherence in Adolescents With Asthma

Abstract

Adolescents with asthma are at-risk for poor sleep quality. Little research has examined the relationship between sleep quality and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) adherence. Individuals from lower-income backgrounds experience disparities that may alsocontribute to sleep quality. This study sought to 1) examine associations between household income and sleep quality and 2) analyze the relationship between sleep quality and ICS adherence among adolescents with asthma.Forty-one adolescents with persistent asthma (Mage = 14.83, SD = 1.28) completed the Adolescent Sleep Wake Scale (ASWS) to measure sleep quality across five subscales. Caregivers provided their estimated household income per year and completed a free response question measuring ICS adherence. Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to examine associations between sleep quality,household income and ICS adherence. Sleep quality and household income were not significantly related (r = .262, p = .098). Sleep quality was not associated with ICS adherence (r = -.028, p = .867). Sleep quality was not significantly related to household income or ICS adherence in adolescents with asthma. Limitations include limited power given a small sample size and less reliable measures of household income and adherence therefore, future directions should focus on using more precise measures. Additional research with larger sample sizes may help better understand potential relationships between sleep quality, ICS adherence, and household income within youth with asthma.