Quality-of-life assessment in children and adolescents with asthma

Health-related quality of life has become an essential part of health outcome measurement in chronic disorders. However, it is only recently that health professionals have focused on quality-of-life assessment in children and adolescents. Several generic, as well as the asthma-specific quality-of-life instruments specifically designed for use in children and adolescents are reviewed in this article with particular regard to the conceptual and methodological features of the measures and their applicability in clinical studies. The recently published Child Health Questionnaire is a useful generic instrument to comprehensively assess quality of life, in particular when comparing young people with different chronic disorders. The Pediatric Asthma Quality-of-life Questionnaire has shown responsiveness to change over time, but it lacks age-specificity with regard to psychosocial issues and comprehensiveness of quality-of-life assessment. In contrast, the Childhood Asthma Questionnaire provides three different versions for different target ages. However, its generic part is not reflective of the respondent's health status. The other asthma-specific instruments have major conceptual deficiencies when used as a single measure for quality-of-life assessment. In the absence of a single ideal instrument, the use of batteries of quality-of-life instruments is therefore recommended and further research is required to identify the impact that age and developmental status have on quality-of-life assessment.