Adolescents with asthma - Everyday life at school

Abstract

Background: Living with asthma can have negative impact on everyday life. To improve health care support, the knowledge about asthmatic adolescents9 experiences needs to be increased. Aim: To evaluate everyday life in school among asthmatic adolescents with focus on physical activity and school environment. Methods: As a part of the OLIN (Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden) pediatric study I, 3327 adolescents (15yr-old) completed a questionnaire based on the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire (ISAAC). Of these, 8% (n=270) reported current asthma and they were further studied in the present study. Result: Sixty-four percent of the adolescents reported that asthma had a negative impact on daily activities, 38.3% expressed that their asthma got worse in school, and 15.2% reported school absenteeism due to asthma. Eighty-three percent of the adolescents expressed that asthma had a negative impact on physical education, and 25.8% reported that they did not have the same physical fitness as their peers. Girls with asthma participated to a lesser extent in physical education compared to the boys (18.6% vs. 9.8%, p=0.040). Factors in school environment related to asthma deterioration were described as: poor air quality, poorly cleaned environment, allergens, strong fragrance, reconstructions, physical education and stress. Conclusion: More than half of the adolescents expressed that asthma had a negative impact on daily activities and that asthma affected physical education. This study identified several factors that could be enhanced and thus improve the everyday life in school for adolescents with asthma.