The Impact of Childhood Asthma on Parental Quality of Life

Abstract

Measuring the quality of life of caregivers is important for interventions designed for young children with asthma. However, little is known about the impact of childhood asthma on parental quality of life for certain subgroups. This study included the families of young urban children with mild persistent to severe persistent asthma. The goal was to evaluate the relationship between caregivers' quality of life and the children's asthma severity, and to consider the influence of sociodemographic factors on the caregivers' quality of life. Children age 3-7 years (63% male, 59% Black, 75% Medicaid), with mild persistent to severe persistent asthma, were identified from a school-based screening survey. Caregiver quality of life was assessed at baseline and at the end of the study using the Paediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ). Pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationship between the PACQLQ and parent-reported asthma symptoms during the same time period. For all measures of severity, there was a significant correlation with quality of life (range r=0.23-0.51, all p<.01). Improvements in the PACQLQ correlated with decreases in symptom scores including symptom days (r=-0.27, p<.001) and symptom nights (r=-0.22, p=.005). In a multivariate model, Hispanic ethnicity, the use of daily maintenance medications, and exposure to secondhand smoke independently predicted worse quality of life scores. We conclude that the caretaker's quality of life, as assessed by the PACQLQ, is directly influenced by the child's asthma severity as well as other family factors among a group of young urban children with significant asthma.

Relationship of Socioeconomic Status with Exacerbation Frequency among Children with Asthma in Malaysia

“…Once the caregivers have a higher level of education, they will tend to have more knowledge about asthma and its evolution, what to do when symptoms appear, and how to prevent crises, minimizing the damage to the quality of life of the child. The low level of caregiver education was highly correlated with the socio-economic background of the family, where they have more risk of environmental exposures, access to healthcare facilities, stress, and cultural factors [12]. Our finding also indicated there was no effect of parental education level on exacerbation of asthma frequency.…”

Factors That Influence Quality of Life in Rural Children With Asthma and Their Parents

“…For parents of children with asthma a decreased quality of life is related to missed workdays, limited activities, inadequate sleep, frequent night awakenings and decreased emotional health. In addition, several studies have also indicated a negative relationship between symptom frequency and parental quality of life scores (Halterman et al, 2004;Osman, Baxter-Jones & Helms, 2001) The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between child and parental quality of life and to describe the relationship among several factors such as demographic variables, asthma severity, missed days of work, asthma education and quality of life in rural children with asthma and their parents/caregivers. Data on quality of life were collected as part of a larger study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), NIH (NR05062) to evaluate the effectiveness of a school based asthma education intervention for rural elementary school age children with asthma (Butz et al, 2005).…”

Rural Children with Asthma: Impact of a Parent and Child Asthma Education Program

“…Many self-management asthma interventions have demonstrated an increase in asthma knowledge (7)(8)(9), reduced emergency department visits (10), increased self-efficacy (11)(12), and quality of life (13)(14). The type of self-management interventions, specifically individualized and interactive educational interventions, have been suggested to have the strongest effect on asthma morbidity (10).…”