Parents' quality of life and respiratory symptoms in young children with mild wheeze

The Paediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ), m easures the impact of child asthma symptoms on family activity (CGAct) and parental anxiety (CGEmot), It has not been validated for families of childr en <7 yrs, with wheezing illness. This study assessed the sensitivity of th e PACQLQ to symptom change in 62 preschool children with wheezing illness. The median age of children was 3 yrs (range 0.8 - 6 yrs). At entry and 3-mo nth follow-up, parents recorded child respiratory symptoms in a 1-month dia ry and completed the PACQLQ, On average, children in the study had 7 sympto matic days per month, On entry, mothers <less than or equal to>30 yrs had worse scores than those >30 (p < 0.02), and mothers in less affluent socioeconomic groups had wors e scores than those in higher groups (p = 0.05). Change in symptom scores a nd symptom free days between entry and follow-up was associated with change in PACQLQ scores (r = 0.54-0.57, p < 0.001), Thirty-three parents had abso lute change in PACQLQ of <0.5 over three months (which has been previously defined as not being clinically significant). Compared to parents with high er PACQLQ change, parents with PACQLQ scores <0.5, did not differ in freque ncy of child symptoms or in social-demographic factors, but had better qual ity of life scores on entry to the study (p < 0.01). It is concluded that the Paediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality of Life Ques tionnaire is sensitive to group measures of child symptom change over 3 mon ths, among preschool children, and this supports its use as an outcome meas ure in clinical trials. The absolute impact of child symptoms on parent qua lity of life varies among parents.