Asthma can negatively affect the daily functioning, quality of life and psychological well-being of patients, requiring adjustment to their multiple life domains. Studies have shown that patients often use avoidance and denial coping strategies, which have been negatively associated with poor clinical and psychological outcomes.

To analyze the relationship between coping strategies, anxiety and control of disease in asthmatic patients.

Cross-sectional study with 253 patients diagnosed with asthma, recruited consecutively in University Hospital. A subsample of 247 patients was evaluated with: Ways of Coping with Asthma in Everyday Life, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, Asthma Control Questionnaire.

The participants were mostly females (78.5%), with mean age 40.6 (15.3) years. The majority (78.7%) had severe persistent asthma and mean illness duration was 20.8 (15.4) years. The use of Avoidance (p < 0.05) (ignoring, denying or avoiding asthma), Worrying with Asthma and Restricted Lifestyle (p < 0.01) (passive affective reactions to the problem) were higher in asthmatics with poor control of the disease. Avoidance and Worry with Asthma correlated with state (p < 0.05/p < 0.01) and trait (p < 0.01/p < 0.05) anxiety. Further, a negative correlation was found between Active Coping and trait anxiety (p < 0.05).

Avoidance or Passive coping strategies were both negatively associated with poor asthma control and higher anxiety. However, further studies will be needed to identify the most adaptive coping strategies that are associated with optimal asthma outcomes. This could provide important directions for development of intervention programmes aimed to improve outcomes in adults with asthma.