Comparing executive functions between patients with chronic asthma and healthy subjects.

OBJECTIVE: Allergic diseases have different levels of prevalence all over the world. Among them, asthma is the most common chronic disease. Up to now, little attention has been paid to the impact of this chronic disease on people's executive functions. The present study aimed at comparing the executive functions in patients with chronic asthma and healthy subjects.

METHODS: The study population was patients with chronic asthma who were referred to Al-Zahra hospital in Isfahan Province and their visitors who were assigned as the control group. Thirty patients with chronic asthma and 30 patient visitors were enrolled in this study, and three software programs (Wisconsin, Stroop, and Continuous Performance Tests) were used.

RESULTS: The results of multivariate variance analysis showed that there is a significant difference between patients with chronic asthma and healthy subjects in terms of set shifting, inhibition, and attention performance.

CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the executive functions of patients with chronic asthma have significant defects.