ASTHMA

AWARENESS OF PARENTS/ GUARDIANS OF ASTHMATIC CHILDREN ABOUT ASTHMA AND ITS CONTROL

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing globally. Asthma is one of the main causes of hospitalization and frequent emergency department visits of children. The parents having awareness about asthma can comply with the treatment, avoidance from triggers and subsequently, they can control asthma symptoms in their children. Study Design: Cross- sectional analytical study. Setting: The Children’s Hospital and the Institute of Child Health, Lahore and Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore in collaboration with University of Health Sciences Lahore. The Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore is a tertiary care and an academic hospital as it is attached with Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical and Dental College (Shaikh Zayed Hospital updates). The Children’s Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore provides services of tertiary health care as well as allied facilities. Period: 12 months from 01-08-2013 to 01-07-2014. Methods: To assess the knowledge of parents of asthmatic children about the disease and to determine any association between asthma knowledge and the level of asthma control in their children. Subjects were parents with their asthmatic children ages between 4 to 12 years attending two exclusive pediatric hospitals at Lahore. A tool was constructed to assess
parent’s knowledge about asthma, and a pre-validated asthma control tool was administered to determine asthma symptoms control in children. Data was represented in the form of figures, tables and chi square test was used to determine the association of knowledge about asthma,
demographic information, and environmental information with different group of asthma control. Results: One hundred and ninety-six parents with their asthmatic children participated in this study. There was no association between asthma knowledge and the level of asthma control.
There were 108 parents who had adequate knowledge about asthma, out of them only 45 (41.7%) children had asthma control. There were 88 parents who had inadequate knowledge about asthma. Out of them 36 (40.9%) children were with asthma control (p=.915). Conclusions:
The findings of the study concluded that more than 50% (108/ 196) of the parents/ guardians have adequate knowledge about asthma and there was no association found between asthma knowledge and the level of asthma control. However, we need to empower Pakistani community
via a national asthma awareness program, smoking cessation campaign and also empower the health care team with up-to-date knowledge about asthma management.