Abstract
Background: Asthma diminishes the health-related quality of life for many school-aged children. This study sought to explore the effect of a School-Based Asthma Education Program (SBAEP) on quality of life.
Methods: Children with asthma who attended grades 1 - 5 at two selected schools were requested to participate in this pilot study. Participants at one school were provided with a SBAEP, those at another school (control group) were provided with written educational material about asthma. The children completed the Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) before and one month after the educational interventions.
Results: There were clinically important improvements in the SBAEP group in quality of life, specifically in the symptom subdomain.
Conclusions: The “Air Force” SBAEP appears to result in a favourable trend in quality of life for children. A larger scale trial is required following revisions to the program.
Résumé
Contexte: L’asthme réduit la qualité de vie de nombreux enfants d’âge scolaire. Notre étude portait sur l’effet d’un « programme de sensibilisation à l’asthme en milieu scolaire » (PSAMS) sur la qualité de vie.
Conclusions: Nous avons demandé à des enfants asthmatiques de la 1e à la 5e année fréquentant deux écoles de participer à une étude pilote. Les participants d’une des écoles avaient été dotés d’un PSAMS; ceux de l’autre (le groupe témoin) avaient reçu du matériel pédagogique écrit sur l’asthme. Avant ces interventions pédagogiques et un mois après, les enfants ont rempli un questionnaire sur leur qualité de vie.
Conclusions: Nous avons constaté des améliorations cliniques importantes dans la qualité de vie du groupe PSAMS, particulièrement pour l’élément « symptômes ».
Conclusions: Le programme (« Air Force ») semble avoir un effet positif sur la qualité de vie des enfants. Après les révisions qui y seront apportées, il faudrait mener un essai à plus grande échelle.
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