Effect of Parents’ Empowerment on Quality of Life among School-Aged Children with Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Asthma affects child's quality of life and overall health specially school age children. Parents and children with asthma should be able to achieve good asthma control. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of parents' empowerment on quality of life among school age children with bronchial asthma. The design of this study was a quasi -experimental design. It was conducted at Chest Hospital Outpatient Clinic in Mit Khalaf Village at Menoufia Governorate.A purposive sample of 40 school age children with acute or severe asthma and their parents were selected from the previously mentioned setting. Four data collection instruments were used. Parents knowledge structured interviewing questionnaire sheet, parents' performance observational checklist, pediatric asthma symptom scale and pediatric asthma quality of life questionnaire (PAQLQ). The results of this study showed that the majority of studied children (87.5%) had poor quality of life on pretest. Meanwhile the majority of them (82.5% and 77.5% respectively) had good quality of life on post and follow-up tests. It was concluded that children with bronchial asthma whose parents received empowerment education intervention had better QOL on post and follow-up test than on pretest. Therefore, this study recommended that parent empowerment education intervention should be provided in primary care settings for children with bronchial asthma and their parents to enhance QOL.