Influence of Sociodemographics on the Health-Related Quality of life of Pediatric Patients with Asthma and Their Caregivers

Abstract

The relationship between socioeconomic variables and the health-related quality of life (HQL) of children with asthma and their caregivers was examined. The Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) and Pediatric Asthma Caregivers Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ) were administered to 99 pediatric asthmatic patients and caregivers in two specialty clinics. Sociodemographic data was obtained from medical records and additional questions. The relationship between sociodemographic variables and HQL was determined using multiple linear regression. The mean patient age was 12.6+/-2.1 years, more were male and from a minority race. The mean age of caregivers was 41.2+/-8.5 years; most were female and were fom a minority race. Patients tended to rate their asthma severity as mild to moderate, while caregivers tended to rate patients in the moderate to severe category. Based on prescribed medications, most patients had mild to moderate asthma. Household income was consistently associated with patient-perceived HQL. Less consistent associations were seen with other variables. Household income and the caregiver's perception of asthma severity were associated with all caregiver HQL domains. It was concluded that household income was most consistently associated with the HQL of asthmatic pediatric patients and their caregivers.

Quality of Life of Multiethnic Adolescents Living with a Parent with Cancer

“…This finding is similar with prior study linking the negative impact of lower socioeconomic status and the quality of life of healthy school children (Mansour et al, 2003;Rueden et al, 2006). The correlations between socioeconomic status and the quality of life of children with severe illnesses have been reported too (Erickson et al, 2002;FelderPuig et al, 2008). Other factors like age, race, religion, sibling sequence and cancer related variables did not show any significant differences in terms of quality of life.…”

Parents with Asthmatic Children, Quality of Life

“…When clinical parameters such as pulmonary function are considered, the results are less clear, with some studies reporting weak correlations and others reporting no association with parents' QoL. More research is needed to clarify these results, although it has been suggested that variability in disease symptoms, rather than static indicators such as pulmonary function, is more likely to influence parents' QoL in the context of a condition characterized by unpredictability (Erickson et al, 2002).…”

“…Specifically, studies have found links between the factors of low income (Erickson et al, 2002) and low SES (e.g., Everhart et al, 2008), and decreased Parents with Asthmatic Children, Quality of Life 8 QoL for parents. Among other factors, a lack of financial resources to meet health care demands and increased worries about being in jeopardy of losing jobs due to frequent absences can explain less affluent parents' QoL impairment.…”

Self-esteem in adolescents with chronic physical illness vs. controls in Northern Russia

“…Our analyses suggested that self-esteem in this study group was not only related to disease and its implications but also to the socioeconomic context in which it was set. Asthma severity and socioeconomic status were proven to predict emotional reactions to asthma in pediatric patients (25). Family size was a slightly less important factor influencing self-esteem, but defiantly worth mentioning in the scope of this paper.…”