title: Psychopathology and quality of life for adolescents with asthma and their parents.
abstract: Asthma is known to have a direct impact on the quality of life of children with asthma and their families as a consequence of the attacks on day-to-day life. Psychopathological factors may be associated with poor quality of life by modulating the handicap and the patient's experience of it. The authors' objective was to evaluate the relationship between emotional and behavioral problems and quality of life, as assessed by the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Pediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire. The study group consisted of 100 adolescent outpatients with asthma who were undergoing regular checkups: 70 boys and 30 girls, ages 12 to 19. They were evaluated by means of self-administered questionnaires completed by their parents. Path analysis was used to propose a model of relationships between psychopathology and quality of life. The quality of life of the children with asthma and their parents was clearly associated with the presence or absence of psychological problems in the patients. Emotional problems were associated with the quality of life of both the patients and their parents; behavioral problems had a smaller effect on the quality of life of the parents only. The authors proposed a structural model of the quality of life of adolescents with asthma and their parents in which quality of life is dependent on psychological variables and is responsible for emotional problems. Multivariate analyses indicated that the quality of life of the children with asthma and their parents and the correlation between quality of life and psychopathology depended little on medical variables such as the duration of illness, its pretreatment severity, or hospitalizations in the past year. In contrast, the quality of life of the parents depended on that of the children and vice versa. This study showed that scores on the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Pediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire reflected not only the medical status of the patients but also psychological variables, which appeared to be a consequence of the functional handicap associated with asthma. Patients who assess the quality of their lives as poor would benefit from psychological evaluation and support.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Groupe Hospitalier Necker-Enfants Malades, France.
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.forename: Ridah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hayder
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Falissard
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Blic
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Mouren-Simeoni
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scheinmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires