Depression, anxiety and quality of life in pediatric asthma in a Hungarian pediatric university department

Aims:

The study's objective was to examine depression, anxiety and quality of life according to age and asthma status in pediatric asthma in a pediatric university department.

Methods:

108 patients, age:11.75 ± 3.10 (mean ± SD) years; (boys 11.6 ± 2.8 years and girls 12.1 ± 3.7 years) completed the Child Depression Inventory (CDI), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (H.STAIC), the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ), and a symptom score. FEV1 was also measured.

Results:

Mean FEV1% was 97.4 ± 12.8. 23 patients (21%) had intermittent asthma, 40 patients (37%) had mild persistent, 43 patients (40%) had moderate persistent, 2 patients (2%) had severe persistent asthma. The pediatric asthma patients scored 9.36 ± 5.57 points in the CDI. The patients showed as many depressive symptoms as the Hungarian average population, pre-adolescent boys with asthma showed even less. Children with asthma scored 31.16 ± 4.61 points on the H.STAIC questionnaire; (boys 30.64 ± 4.29, girls 32.67 ± 5.27). Children with asthma have the same anxiety level as their healthy peers. On the PAQLQ asthmatic children reached 6.18 ± 1.00 (2.87-7.00); adolescent girls scored the worst (5.62 ± 1.28). Adolescent asthmatic girls have the worst quality of life. Boys reach better quality of life scores as they grow older (p = 0.02). Girls with adolescence have a tendency of decreasing quality of life, although the difference is not significant. In adolescence, asthmatic girls experience more QoL deprivation than boys (p = 0.013). Depression score, anxiety, or quality of life showed no differences between the intermittent and persistent asthmatic groups. Children in the symptomatic subgroup experienced poorer quality of life. Depression and anxiety were not affected by current asthma symptoms. There was no significant difference in depression, anxiety or quality of life scores according to age.

Conclusion:

The psychological status of the asthmatic patients is fairly good. One should concentrate more on the quality of life of girls in adolescence. The good pediatric care of childhood asthmatics helps to avoid the psychological consequences of the disease.