Pediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire is a useful tool for monitoring asthma in children

Abstract

Purpose There is little agreement among researchers whether a caregiver's QOL can be used to detect changes in asthma severity in children. We assessed correlation between QOL in parents and QOL in children with asthma as well as clinical parameters of asthma. We determined whether changes in caregiver's QOL scores reflect changes in child's QOL and their asthma control. Methods This was a 9-week period cohort study. One hundred and ten primary caregivers with 110 children were seen in the clinic at enrollment, at week #1, #5 and #9. At each visit, the parents completed the Pediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ). Results One hundred and one children and 101 caregivers completed the study. We found a significant correlation between asthma diary score in children and QOL in parents (from r = -0.46 to r = -0.53). We also found significant positive correlation between PAQLQ and PACQLQ and significant association between changes in asthma control and PACQLQ score for both domains. We observed significant change in PACQLQ of caregivers whose children obtained asthma control. Conclusions PACQLQ is a useful tool for monitoring asthma in children. The implementation of the PACQLQ would be helpful in involving parents in therapy of their children with asthma. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012.