Comparing health-related quality-of-life scores in well-controlled asthmatic children and adolescents with their parents using PedsQL 3.0 asthma scales in our practice

Abstract

Introduction Bronchial asthma strongly affects the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children in many aspects including physical, emotional, social, and school functioning. Child self-reports of QOL are valid for measuring HRQOL, but the parent proxy reports also provide additional important information. Aim To assess the agreement between the child self-reports of HRQOL and the parent proxy reports among the children and adolescents with well-controlled bronchial asthma. Patients and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 75 asthmatic patients aged between 8 and 18 years and their parents who were being followed up in the allergy outpatient clinic in the Department of Pediatrics, Cairo University. HRQOL was assessed by the PedsQL 3.0 asthma module. Results The mean±SD age of the patients was 10.08±1.70 years. Distribution of agreement between patients and parents showed that 40 (53.3%) cases showed agreement in different domains. Agreement between child and parent-by-proxy was 54.3% in the asthma domain, 45.3% in the treatment domain, 34.7% in the worry domain, and 17.3% in the communication domain. A statistically significant correlation was found between QOL in child and parent in all domains; the correlation was strong in the asthma and worry domains and weak in the treatment and the communication domains, where in the asthma domain, confidence interval (CI) was 0.803 (0.690–0.875), with a P value of 0.000; in the treatment domain, CI was 0.305 (0.080–0.499), with a P value of 0.009; in the worry domain, CI was 0.539 (0.357–0.682), with a P value 0.000; and finally, in the communication domain, the CI was 0.374 (0.163–0.552), with a P value of 0.000. Conclusion There was a lack of convergence between the child self-report and the parent’s report of the PedsQL 3.0 asthma module. Asthmatic children’s self-reports were more accurate than parent proxy reports for the assessment of HRQOL. Parent proxy reports should be spared to very young children or children who lack the logical or analytical ability needed for answering the questionnaire.