QUALITY-OF-LIFE ASSESSMENT IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH ASTHMA

Health-related quality of life has become an essential part of health outcome measurement in chronic disorders. However, it is only recently that health professionals have focused on quality-of-life assessment in children and adolescents. Several generic, as well as the asthma-sp ecific quality-of-life instruments specifically designed for use in ch ildren and adolescents are reviewed in this article with particular re gard to the conceptual and methodological features of the measures and their applicability in clinical studies. The recently published Child Health Questionnaire is a useful generic instrument to comprehensivel y assess quality of life, in particular when comparing young people wi th different chronic disorders. The Pediatric Asthma Quality-of-life Q uestionnaire has shown responsiveness to change over time, but it lack s age-specificity with regard to psychosocial issues and comprehensive ness of quality-of-life assessment. In contrast, the Childhood Asthma Questionnaire provides three different versions for different target a ges. However, its generic part is not reflective of the respondent's h ealth status. The other asthma-specific instruments have major concept ual deficiencies when used as a single measure for quality-of-life ass essment. In the absence of a single ideal instrument, the use of batte ries of quality-of-life instruments is therefore recommended and furth er research is required to identify the impact that age and developmen tal status have on quality-of-life assessment.