Evaluation of the burden of illness for pediatric asthmatic patients and their parents.

To examine the quality-of-life burden of asthma in a pediatric population, we systematically surveyed 100 patients with moderate asthma and one parent of each patient to determine the impact of the disease on day-to-day life. We found that perceptions of burden of illness varied by viewpoint. For patients, the symptoms of asthma form the largest component of the burden of the disease; in addition, more than half of the sample listed various emotional function items that were of at least moderate bother to them. Parents cited worry and concern about the disease and the medications used to treat it and their inability to relieve their child's symptoms as the major components of the burden of the disease. We conclude that although pediatric patients with moderate asthma find the respiratory symptoms of the disease troublesome, few children perceive that their asthma poses a major disruption of their lives. For the parents of these patients, strategies could be implemented by clinicians to ease the common worries and concerns surrounding the child's asthma.