Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access

Abstract

Assessment of Quality of Life in Children with Asthma and Epilepsy

Chamanpreet S Gandhi, Shaveta Kundra, Tejinder Singh, Gurmeet K Chaudary and Khosla PP

Objective: To study quality of life in asthmatic and epileptic children undergoing treatment.
Materials and methods: Study enrolled children attending the OPD or admitted in the hospital. Normal children or those having no chronic disease served as controls. Data was collected from the children and their guardians who had taken care of the child for at least six months by using a Peds QL questionnaire, appropriate for the age of the child.
Results: A total of 269 children including 75 asthmatics, 94 epileptics and 100 controls were enrolled from the OPD. The two samples were compared on four domains of quality of life: physical, emotional, social, and educational. Our major finding was that children with epilepsy had a relatively more compromised quality of life in the emotional, social, and educational domains. In contrast, children with asthma had a more compromised quality of life in the physical domain.
Conclusions: Children with chronic diseases have a relatively compromised quality of life and focusing simply on control of primary illness may not address the full range of child’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. There is an opportunity to improve the lives of children with asthma and epilepsy.