Dyspnea Experience, Symptom Management and Outcomes Among Caregivers of School - Age Asthmatic Children

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive research was to describe dyspnea experience, asthma symptom management and outcomes among caregivers of the school-age asthmatic children. Purposive sampling was used to select 197 caregivers of the school-age asthmatic children who came to visit at the Pediatric Chest Outpatient Clinic in Songklanagarind Hospital between August to December, 2011. The data were collected using four questionnaires: 1) Dyspnea Experience, 2) Asthma Symptom Management, 3) Emotional Outcome, and 4) Activity of Daily Living Outcome. The questionnaires were evaluated for content validity with three experts and tested for reliability yielding Cronbarch’s alpha coefficients of questionnaires 1-4 equal to .91, .93, .87, and .85, respectively.

The results showed that experience of dyspnea severity over the past 24 hours was at the lowest level (M = 2.32, SD = 1.97) The overall asthma symptom management among caregivers was at a high level (M = 2.42, SD = 0.40). Most dimensions of asthma symptom management were at a high level such as treatment and care when the child had asthmatic attack (M = 2.55, SD = 0.38), growth and developmental promotion (M = 2.50, SD = 0.4 ), and knowledge seeking and acceptance of asthma as a part of the child’ s life (M = 2.47, SD = 0.46). Only one dimension, prevention of asthmatic attack and side effects of medicine or bronchodilator, was at a moderate level (M = 2.16, SD = 0.49). The emotional outcome was at a moderate level (M = 40.83, SD = 18.72). The activity of daily living outcome was at a high level (M = 17.45, SD = 1.03). The findings of this study will be useful for health care providers to enhance health promotion and provide asthmatic symptom management knowledge in order to promote better quality of life, emotion, and activity of school-age asthmatic children.