1 – Serviço de Imunoalergologia, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Lisboa Central, E.P.E., Lisboa, Portugal
- EAACI Congress 2020, reunião internacional, apresentação sob a forma de poster
Resumo:
Background: Asthma is a very common chronic condition worldwide and it affects all ages. The diagnosis of asthma in younger children can be challenging and the assessment of asthma control is essential to stablish the best therapeutic plan to each patient. The children caregivers can have a different perception than children themselves about asthma control, with implications on medical decision. The purpose of this study was to compare the asthma control perception between children, their parents and physicians.
Methods: Validated asthma control questionnaire (c-ACT) for parents and children was given randomly to 50 children of about 200, from 4 to 11 years old, who came to our department with asthma diagnosis during a 4 weeks period. Data from clinical records was collected in order to compare the c-ACT results with the medical assessment. According with the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), the disease was classified based on clinical files as controlled, partly controlled and uncontrolled.
Results: 40 patients (mean age 8.3 ± 2.3 years old, 75% male) and their parents completed the asthma control questionnaires. Controlled asthma was the most frequent one to doctor (65%), parents (88%) and children (60%). In more than half of the cases all the groups agreed about the control of asthma (55%), but there was a significant amount (22.5%) where the doctor and the parent agreed but the children had a different opinion. The children had a poor perception of asthma control when compared with adults: 20% of them considered asthma uncontrolled but only 5% of parents and 7.5% of doctors had the same perception.
Conclusion: In most cases there was agreement between the three groups. Nonetheless, there was a high percentage of cases where the child had a different perception than the doctor and the parent, raising concerns about a successful evaluation of the patients and suggesting that communication needs to be improved. Children spend a lot of time at school and can have a poor perception of their own disease control. Since 22 to 40% of the children hadn’t achieved asthma control, it is crucial listening to them, better understand the symptoms and adjust therapeutics to improve it.
Palavras Chave: asma, população pediátrica, controlo, percepção