Parents9 quality of life and respiratory symptoms in young children with mild wheeze

Parents9 quality of life and respiratory symptoms in young children with mild wheeze. L.M. Osman, A.D.G. Baxter-Jones, P.J. Helms, on behalf of the EASE study group. #ERS Journals Ltd 2001. ABSTRACT: The Paediatric Asthma Caregiver9s Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ), measures the impact of child asthma symptoms on family activity (CGAct) and parental anxiety (CGEmot). It has not been validated for families of children v7 yrs, with wheezing illness. This study assessed the sensitivity of the PACQLQ to symptom change in 62 preschool children with wheezing illness. The median age of children was 3 yrs (range 0.8 – 6 yrs). At entry and 3-month follow-up, parents recorded child respiratory symptoms in a 1-month diary and completed the PACQLQ. On average, children in the study had 7 symptomatic days per month. On entry, mothers ¡30 yrs had worse scores than those w30 (pv0.02), and mothers in less affluent socioeconomic groups had worse scores than those in higher groups (p~0.05). Change in symptom scores and symptom free days between entry and followup was associated with change in PACQLQ scores (r~0.54 – 0.57, pv0.001). Thirtythree parents had absolute change in PACQLQ of v0.5 over three months (which has been previously defined as not being clinically significant). Compared to parents with higher PACQLQ change, parents with PACQLQ scores v0.5, did not differ in frequency of child symptoms or in social-demographic factors, but had better quality of life scores on entry to the study (pv0.01). It is concluded that the Paediatric Asthma Caregiver9s Quality of Life Questionnaire is sensitive to group measures of child symptom change over 3 months, among preschool children, and this supports its use as an outcome measure in clinical trials. The absolute impact of child symptoms on parent quality of life varies among parents. Eur Respir J 2001; 17: 254–258. *Dept of Medicine and Therapeutics and Dept of Child Health, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.