Longitudinal relationship between disease specific quality of life and asthma control in children

Rationale Managing chronic paediatric asthma includes optimizing both asthma control and asthma-specific quality of life (QoL). However, it is unknown to what extent asthma-specific QoL is related to asthma control or other clinical asthma characteristics over time. Objectives To determine in children, longitudinally: 1) the association between asthma control and disease specific QoL; 2) the relationship between clinical asthma characteristics and disease specific QoL. Methods A prospective cohort study in 96 asthmatic children was carried out over one year. During two monthly regular visits, disease specific QoL, asthma control, dynamic lung function indices, fractional exhaled nitric oxide, occurrence of exacerbations, and use of rescue medication were assessed. Association between asthma clinical characteristics and asthma-specific QoL was analysed using linear mixed models. Results Asthma control improvement was associated with an increase in the PAQLQ total score (p-value (estimate); 2 -agonists, occurrence of wheezing episodes in the year before the study, occurrence of an asthma exacerbation in the two months prior to a clinical visit and lung function (FEV 1 % predicted value) (p-values ≤ 0.01). Conclusion There was a strong longitudinal relationship between asthma control and asthma-specific QoL. In addition, increased use of β 2 -agonists, occurrence of wheezing episodes before the study, occurrence of asthma exacerbations during the study, and decreased lung function were associated with a lower asthma-specific QoL over time.