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Normalization strategies of children with asthma

Jennifer L P Protudjer1, Anita L Kozyrskyj, Allan B Becker

  • 1Department of Applied Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Qualitative Health Research
|November 11, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Children with asthma often feel different and use strategies to cope. They minimize health impacts, stress normality, emphasize abilities, adapt daily life, and manage symptoms with medication.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric pulmonology
  • Child psychology
  • Qualitative health research

Background:

  • Physiologic effects of childhood asthma are understood.
  • Children's lived experiences and perceptions of asthma are less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To understand how children perceive living with asthma.
  • To identify children's strategies for normalizing their lives despite asthma.

Main Methods:

  • Semistructured, in-depth interviews conducted with 22 children (11 boys, 11 girls) aged 11.
  • Participants were diagnosed with asthma by a pediatric allergist.
  • Children were recruited from a larger ongoing asthma study.

Main Results:

  • Children described feeling different and experiencing "pain" and "hurt."
  • Identified normalization strategies include: minimizing health impact, stressing normality, emphasizing abilities, adapting daily life, and managing symptoms with medication.

Conclusions:

  • Children with asthma employ various strategies to normalize their lives.
  • These normalization efforts are comparable to those used by children with other chronic diseases.

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