Childhood asthma control and compliance with respect to parental concerns about treatment

Asthma control in childhood improves the quality of life and prevents future chronic respiratory conditions. Misconceptions about asthma medicines may result in non-compliance to treatment. In our research we aimed to investigate the impact of parental concerns and beliefs about medications on adherance to treatment.A face to face questionnaire survey was carried out with parents of asthmatic children. The survey contained questions on demographics, parental concern on medications and adherence to treatment, symptoms. Data were evaluated by SPSS. 20 programme with using Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Square tests.Parents of 106 children were interviewed. 37.7%[ n= 40] of the children were girls and 62.3 %[n =66] were boys. The average age of the children was 7.3 years. 78.3% mothers and 84%of fathers had university or higher degree education.Asthma control was found to be significantly lower in children whose parents occasionally forget using medication (p=0.019); and in those whose parents were concerned about using medication (p=0.03). The parents who used herbal medicines tended to forget using the medicines more often P=0,003. Children whose mothers had higher educational status had lower asthma control score (p=0.011).Compliance to treatment increased asthma control score. Children whose parents were concerned about treatment and who tended to forget using medicine had significantly lower asthma control scores. Parents who used herbal and alternative medicines tended to forget u...
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Paediatric asthma and allergy Source Type: research