Abstract
Asthma is the most common chronic condition of childhood. Self-management is integral to good asthma control. This qualitative paper explores how children with asthma and their parents perceive asthma, their experience with asthma, and how they manage symptoms, preventions and medications within and outside the home. We undertook 15 focus groups with 41 school-aged (6–11 years) children with asthma and 38 parents. Parents and their children attended the same focus groups. We used thematic analysis to analyse the transcripts. Our findings show the impact asthma can have on children’s social and emotional wellbeing and highlight how reliant school-aged children are on their parents to effectively manage their asthma. Parents reported being unsure when their child’s symptoms warranted visiting their doctor or hospital. Schools were identified as a source of difficulty regarding asthma management; families reported that children may be self-conscious about their asthma and using their inhaler at school. School policies and teachers’ lack of asthma knowledge were reported to exacerbate children’s reluctance to use their inhaler at school. Our results have implications for the design and implementation of children’s self-management interventions for their asthma, particularly when they are at school and away from their parents.
Highlights
Asthma is the most common chronic condition of childhood with approximately 14% of children worldwide experiencing asthma symptoms[1]
Self-management is integral to good asthma control
This research protocol was approved by the University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee, with recruitment through schools approved by NSW Department of Education, Queensland Department of Education and Training, and format while children completed a drawing or collage activity to design an asthma management “machine” using the prompt “create a machine that takes you from your asthma feeling bad to feeling good”
Summary
Asthma is the most common chronic condition of childhood with approximately 14% of children worldwide experiencing asthma symptoms[1]. Controlled asthma is commonly observed[3], related to poorer quality of life among children, and can impose significant burden on families and the health-care system[4]. Children with asthma access health-care services more frequently (416 hospitalisations per 100,0005), experience increased school absenteeism[6], have sleep disturbance[7] and restriction to everyday activity compared to children without asthma[8]. Self-management programmes for children with asthma have important health benefits, including improved lung function, decreased morbidity, fewer days absent from school and reduced visits to emergency departments[13,14]. Emerging evidence shows that apps and other digital media may be effective tools to facilitate asthma self-management, among adolescents and adults[15,16,17,18]. Further research is needed to assess the appropriateness and desired content of apps for children with asthma and their parents[19]
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