Socio-economic burden of childhood asthma

The socio-economic burden of childhood asthma has not been assessed in India. We interviewed parents of asthmatic 85 children in the age group of 6-17 years who were suffering from asthma. Socio-economic burden of asthma was assessed by using Pai and Kapur's interview schedule and the results were analyzed by using Chi square, Student's 't' test and Pearson's product movement correlation coefficient. Severe burden was experienced by the family in 25.9% cases. Total burden score was significantly associated with severity of asthma (p < 0.001) and socio economic status of the family (p < 0.01). These results indicate that there is need for health professionals and social support organizations to chalk out programmes to provide support at least to families of children with chronic/recurrent illness like bronchial asthma in order to reduce the anxiety and other hardships suffered by the families.