MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PEDIATRIC ASTHMA CLINICAL-TRIALS

Objective: This review will provide the reader a current appraisal of attempts to measure quality of life (QoL) in pediatric asthma and guid elines toward making a discriminating selection from available QoL que stionnaires. Data Sources: A MEDLINE literature search was performed u sing the index terms quality of Life and asthma. Reference lists from articles identified through this search were also perused. References that did not include the term ''quality of life'' but clearly addresse d this topic were included. Results: Nine questionnaires employed in s tudies evaluating life quality associated with pediatric asthma were i dentified. Five of the questionnaires are parent-completed and four ar e child-completed. The instruments vary considerably in length and con tent areas, and most have been used in a single study. Conclusion: The science of measuring QoL change associated with pediatric asthma is i n its infancy and the decision to use any single QoL instrument should be made cautiously. Investigators seeking to employ a QoL questionnai re in pediatric asthma clinical trials must consider several problems specific to evaluation with children, including age effects, reading a bility, impact of adult assistance upon responses, and the inclusion o f mother- versus father-completed questionnaires. The selected QoL que stionnaire should address specific hypotheses and be piloted by the in vestigator before inclusion in a planned investigation.