Keele Research Repository

Objective
To establish children and adolescents' perspectives regarding their asthma and its impact upon their daily lives.

Design
A 14‐item questionnaire.

Setting
Canada, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

Participants
Children/adolescents (aged 8–15 years) with physician‐diagnosed asthma.

Intervention
Interviews were conducted by telephone (Canada, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) or face‐to‐face (South Africa).

Outcome Measures
Asthma symptoms, impact on activities, and quality of life.

Results
Of the 943 children/adolescents interviewed, 60% were male. Most (81%) described their asthma as “not too bad” or “I only get it every now and then,” with only 4% reporting their asthma as being “very bad”; however, 92% experienced asthma‐related coughing and 59% reported nocturnal awakening. Over half (57%) of children/adolescents believed they could predict when their asthma would make them ill; the most common initial symptoms being breathlessness (41%) and bad cough (33%). They considered the worst things about having asthma to be the symptoms of an asthma attack (32%) and not being able to play sport (25%). Almost half (47%) of children/adolescents felt that their asthma affected their ability to play sport or engage in physical activity. One in ten reported they had suffered asthma‐related bullying.

Conclusions
Children/adolescents underestimate the severity of their asthma, and overestimate its control, indicating that they expect their illness to be symptomatic. Asthma has a substantial impact on their daily lives, particularly on physical activity and social functioning. Efforts are required to improve asthma control and expectations of health in children/adolescents.