PARENTAL ASTHMA ILLNESS REPRESENTATION AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE
Abstract
Asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness among children in the United States, affecting more than 6 million children. It results in an increase in the frequency of school absences, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations. The affects of asthma can have a substantial role on the health related quality of life (HRQoL) of children. The parent's illness representation contributes to the proper management and treatment of asthma in children. The purpose of this study was to assess the parental illness representation of asthma and compare to an assessment of the HRQoL of the asthmatic child. The research question was: Is there a relationship between parental illness representation of asthma and their child's HRQoL?
The conceptual framework utilized in this study was the Health Belief Model (HBM). It established a relationship between the parental illness representation of asthma, based on knowledge, and the outcomes of perceived health related quality of life of their asthmatic children, by incorporating the concepts of the model with the variables of the study.
The methodological approach was a quantitative correlational descriptive study and included children and parents of a local school district. Permission was obtained from the administrative team. Human participant approval was obtained from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Institutional Review Board. This descriptive study used convenience samples of 58 children ages 10 -- 17 with the illness of asthma, as determined by the parents on school enrollment forms. The study was conducted in the school setting and included the involvement of the school nurse. Distribution of an informed consent and the Asthma Illness Representation Scale (AIRS) was mailed to the parents. The Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) was administered in the school setting. Descriptive and correlational statistics were used to analyze the data.
Subject
Chronic diseases
Chronically ill family relationships
Asthma in children
Quality of life
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/47114Description
A Clinical Paper Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner