Quality of Life in 8-12-year-old Children with Asthma in Karaj

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in children. Most of the asthmatic patients are considered mild; however, 5-10% of patients suffer from severe disease Asthma has a considerable impact on patients' quality of life, especially among severe asthmatic patients. This study was designed to evaluate the quality of life in 8-12-year-old asthmatic patients.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017-2018 using the Persian version of PedsQLTM 4,0 questionnaire. A total of 140 asthmatic patients who referred to allergy clinic in Karaj , were diagnosed by an allergist with 140 healthy children as the control group were enrolled.

More than half of the patients and control group were boys (n=85; 58.6%). The mean total score of PedsQLTM 4,0 in the asthmatic group was 23.11 (SD=15.60) comparing to 8.96 (SD=9.89) in the control group (P<0.001). All different aspects of quality of life; physical performance, social function, emotional performance, and performance in school were significantly lower in asthmatic group. The quality of life score was considerably lower in patients with a history of hospital admission and patients with high steps of asthma severity (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the score of PedsQLTM 4,0 between girls and boys (P>0.05).

Asthma has a significantly adverse effect on different aspects of children's quality of life including physical performance, social function, emotional performance and performance in school in Karaj city.