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Poor perception of airway obstruction in children with asthma

R R Baker1, S C Mishoe, F H Zaitoun

  • 1Department of Respiratory Therapy, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-0850, USA. RABAKER@mail.mcg.edu

The Journal of Asthma : Official Journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma
|November 4, 2000
PubMed

Insights

Many children with asthma cannot perceive airway obstruction or bronchodilation. A visual analog scale improvement of less than 20% after bronchodilation may identify those at risk for severe asthma attacks.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Pulmonology
  • Respiratory Medicine
  • Asthma Research

Background:

  • Asthma symptom perception is crucial for effective self-management in children.
  • Poor perception of airway obstruction can lead to delayed treatment and severe exacerbations.
  • Identifying children with impaired perception is essential for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate how children perceive asthma symptoms, specifically airway obstruction and bronchodilation.
  • To identify a practical clinical method for detecting poor perception of airway obstruction in pediatric asthma patients.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of relationships between lung function indices and breathlessness perception in 35 children.
  • Utilized three distinct methods to assess perception.
  • Measured visual analog scale scores before and after bronchodilation.

Main Results:

  • Around 50% of the studied children failed to perceive airway obstruction or bronchodilation.
  • A significant proportion of children demonstrated a poor subjective response to bronchodilators.
  • Visual analog scale scores showed variability in reflecting objective lung function changes.

Conclusions:

  • Children's perception of asthma symptoms, including bronchodilation, is often unreliable.
  • An improvement of <20% in visual analog scale scores post-bronchodilation may serve as a simple clinical indicator.
  • This indicator can help identify children with poor perception, who are at higher risk for fatal or near-fatal asthma events.

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