THE CHILD WITH ASTHMA

Being the asthma in the child a chronic disease, the role of the parents as carers get an essential emphasis. In this sense, patient and family`s education, have a key role in promoting a better understanding of the disease. To evaluate the asthmatic children s parents and adolescents knowledge about the disease and to analyze the relationship between the socioeconomic status and education with the level of knowledge about asthma. A cross sectional study was conducted with a sample of 93 parents of children with diagnosed asthma and 34 adolescents. The data collection was proceeded by applying a questionnaire for demographic and clinical data; the Graffar Social Classification and the Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire. Most parents expressed interest in having more knowledge about the disease. The average value of parental knowledge was 13.6 while the teenagers’ result was 12.4, but the difference was not statistically significant. We observed a lack of association between knowledge about asthma and the socioeconomic status and the educational level. Improving knowledge about the disease leads to a better asthma control, so the results of this work force us to reflect on the implementation of educational programs that meet the expressed needs. Key-words: Asthma; Knowledge; Children; Adolescent; Parents. (Source: DeCs, BIREME)