Young asthmatics reliably describe health status
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The results of a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics indicate that children as young as 7 years old can dependably report on their asthma health status.
“Whether to collect patient-reported data (such as health status or health-related quality of life) from parents or children is an important question in both pediatric research and clinical practice,” Dr. Lynn M. Olson, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and colleagues write.
Parents and children may have different views on the impact of disease, the authors note, and some aspects may be difficult for parents to assess. The question then is “at what age do children become dependable reporters of their own health?”
To investigate, the researchers interviewed 414 parents and children separately, using the Children’s Health Survey Asthma-Child Version to determine physical health, activities and emotional health. The average age of the children was 11.5 years old and ranged from 7 to 16 years.
The team assessed the data reported by the children for reliability, based on consistency and additional tests; for validity, by symptoms and lung function comparisons; and feasibility, reflected by completion time and missing data.
In all but one age category, reliability estimates for activities and emotional health scales were in the acceptable range. Acceptable consistency scores were observed in five of nine age groups, and, in general, test and retest correlations were strong for all ages. These values tended to increase with the child’s age.
The time needed to complete the children’s asthma health survey decreased from 12.9 minutes at age 7 to 6.9 minutes at age 13.
Olson and colleagues conclude that “children with asthma as young as 7 may be dependable and valuable reporters of their health.” However, they note that practical considerations, such as having enough time to get the information, may affect the results obtained.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, January 2007.
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