Cornell Translational Behavioral Science Research Consortium: Asthma Qualitative Study

• Through a series of open-ended questions we will explore and build a better understanding of how different patient populations view asthma and the difficulties they face in changing behavior. In addition the responses to such questions should help us to better understand and anticipate some of the barriers and issues that participants may face in successfully changing their behaviors.
• The second objective is to use the responses obtained to inform how an intervention of positive affect induction and self-affirmation should be operationalized and tailored.

Inclusion criteria

Patients will be eligible for this study if their physicians consider them medically able to participate, if they are 18 years of age or older, and if they have a diagnosis of mild to moderate asthma based on the NHLBI Asthma Expert Panel's classification system which rates symptoms, frequency of exacerbations, nocturnal attacks, activity restriction, use of medications, and pulmonary function.

Exclusion criteria

Patients will be excluded from this study for the following reasons:

• If they are unable to walk several blocks for whatever reason;
• If they have musculoskeletal or neurological deficits that preclude increased physical activity;
• If they have other pulmonary diseases;
• If they have cardiac disease or other severe comorbidity;
• If they are unable to provide informed consent because of cognitive deficits;
• If they refuse to participate.