[Evaluation of the quality of life of asthmatic children]

In order to know the impact of patient's treatment in a Asthma and Allergy Clinic we evaluated the quality of life of asthmatic children.

We included schoolchildren with moderate asthma. In the initial evaluation we considered the number of acute crisis and hospitalizations, medications use, knowledge about environmental control measures (ECM), MDI's correct use, bronchodilators indications, satisfaction and treatment effect and patient's quality of life were scored with an analogous visual score. All patients received pharmacologic treatment and asked to achieve both ECM and assist to information and training sessions. They were evaluated during one year. Were analyzed with Student's t test.

Were 40 patients with an age-average of 5.9 years-old +/- 2.9 SD, at the beginning we observed in average: duration of the disease 3.3 years +/- 2.5, number of crisis/year 17.1 +/- 9.5, emergency room visits/year 9 +/- 5.6. Only 9 children (22%) used MDI's correctly and 5 (12.5%) had knowledge about beta agonists indications. At the end of the year they had an annual average of 1.15 crisis +/- 1 SD. Only 7 patients (17.5%) went to emergency room one time. In the questionnaire the scoring average at the onset and at the end was: patient and patient's family care 62 +/- 12.3 SD and 91.5 +/- 9.1 SD (p < 0.01); treatment effectiveness 39.6 +/- 16.7 SD and 93.3 +/- 8.6 SD (p < 0.001); information and acquired skills 34.9 +/- 15.2 SD and 92.9 +/- 10.6 SD (p < 0.001); family cost 82.4 +/- 13.5 SD and 16.1 +/- 14.4 SD (p < 0.001) and daily patient's activities. 32.8 +/- 15.1 SD and 90.1 +/- 8.4 SD (p < 0.001)

The chronic asthma treatment in children with monitored education by allergist improves significantly patient's quality of life and reduce treatment costs.