Asthma knowledge, subjective assessment of severity and symptom perception in parents of children with asthma

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm the tendency for parents to underestimate the severity of symptoms and the poor consistency between parents' reports of symptoms and the physicians' evaluation of asthma control. Additionally, the relationship between parents' asthma knowledge and their report of symptoms and estimation of asthma severity was explored. Methods: Fifty children (M = 10.5 years) and their caregivers were recruited from two Portuguese hospitals. A measure of asthma symptoms report (Severity of Chronic Asthma, SCA) and a subjective evaluation of asthma severity were collected and compared with physicians' ratings of asthma control, as well as parents' knowledge about asthma (Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire, AKQ) and emotional disturbance (Brief Symptom Inventory, BSI). Results: Although parents' evaluation of perceived asthma severity was moderately correlated to symptoms reported, results confirm an inconsistency between parents' reports of symptoms, their subjective rating of asthma severity and the physician's rating of clinical control, revealing a tendency for parents to underestimate disease severity and to underreport asthma symptoms. Asthma knowledge was not significantly correlated to SCA or to parents' subjective evaluation of asthma severity. Parents with poorer knowledge reported fewer symptoms. Conclusions: Portuguese parents revealed a tendency to overestimate their child's level of asthma control and a low level of asthma knowledge. Parents' education, psychological disturbance and time since diagnosis were associated with asthma knowledge. Parents' knowledge was not related to the child's asthma outcomes or to their subjective evaluation of asthma severity or symptoms reports. Parents' asthma knowledge deficits, underreporting of symptoms and underestimation of asthma severity, may affect parent-provider communication and impede asthma control.