Asthma and quality of life in adolescents in Manisa, Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asthma and the association between asthma and quality of life in sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in the city of Manisa.

The population of this cross-sectional study includes the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of primary schools located in the city of Manisa (n = 59, 135). The study sample included 763 students from nine schools with different socioeconomic features selected by the Directorate of National Education. Data were collected under the supervision of the researcher with a socio-demographic questionnaire, International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire and Kiddo-KINDL, a quality of life scale. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test and chi2-test were used for the evaluation of the data.

In total, 83 children (10.9%) were diagnosed with asthma by doctors and 82 children (10.7%) had wheezing or asthmatic attacks in the past 12 months. The children with life-long asthma had significantly lower scores for quality of life than those without asthma (p < 0.05).

The prevalence of asthma is different in different geographical regions in Turkey. Our results are similar to the results of Western society and asthma has a negative effect on the quality of life of children.