Chest
Clinical InvestigationsPerceptions of Asthma by Adolescents at Home
Section snippets
Subjects
There were 30 adolescents with asthma participating, 18 boys and 12 girls, aged 13 to 17 years (mean, 14.3; SD, 2.1). They enrolled via general physicians in Amsterdam and received equal payment for their participation. All subjects and their parents signed informed consent.
The severity of asthma was evaluated according to the guidelines of asthma management by the British Thoracic Society et al.36, 37 The subjects were using medication from “steps four and five,” indicating severe asthma: oral
Results
There were nine subjects with one or two wheeze episodes, another three subjects with three or four wheeze episodes, and one subject with almost continuous wheeze. None of the subjects needed emergency care during the monitoring period.
The 30 subjects completed 234 dyspnea assessments, of which 2 were not used in the analysis because they had been preceded by bronchodilator inhalation. The mean dyspnea was 1.8 (range, 0 to 6; SD, 1.7). The mean dyspnea during wheeze episodes (n = 13; 32
Discussion
This study showed that spontaneous airway obstruction as indicated by wheeze in the homes of asthmatics related significantly to a dyspnea rise from baseline of ≥ 2.5 scale points. Acute wheeze predicted dyspnea better than did prolonged wheeze. However, only dyspnea during prolonged wheeze correlated significantly with negative mood and general symptoms.
These preliminary results suggested that adolescents with prolonged airway obstruction were more vulnerable to negative effects of asthma than
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Cedric Sands for proofreading the manuscript.
References (46)
- et al.
Perception of asthma
Lancet
(1976) - et al.
Psychological defenses and coping styles in patients following a life-threatening attack of asthma
Chest
(1989) - et al.
Diagnostic significance of cough in childhood asthma: results of continuous monitoring in the homes of children
Chest
(1998) - et al.
Histamine challenge in young children using computerized lung sounds analysis
Chest
(1992) - et al.
Characteristics and diagnostic significance of wheezes during exercise-induced airway obstruction in children with asthma
Chest
(1996) - et al.
Emotions in every day life: studies with patients and normals
Biol Psychol
(1996) - et al.
Acute bronchial asthma: relations between clinical and physiological manifestations
N Engl J Med
(1973) Blunted perception and death from asthma (editorial comments)
N Engl J Med
(1994)- et al.
Clinical features associated with poor perception of asthma in the community [abstract]
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
(1995) Symptom perception in asthma: a multidisciplinary review
J Asthma
(1998)
Influence of treatment with beclomethasone, cromoglycate, and theophylline
Clin Sci
Self-management in the treatment of childhood asthma
J Allergy Clin Immunol
Training perception of airflow obstruction in asthmatics
Ann Allergy
Peakflow meters: are they monitoring tools or training devices?
J Asthma
Chemosensitivity end perception of dyspnea in patients with a history of near-fatal asthma
N Engl J Med
Symptom perception in asthma: a biomedical and psychological review
Int J Behav Med
The relationship between symptom perception and severity of asthma
Recognition of added resistive loads in asthma: the importance of behavioral styles
Am Rev Respir Dis
Association of anxiety with perception of histamine-induced bronchoconstriction in patients with asthma
Thorax
The relationship between negative emotions and acute objective and subjective symptoms of childhood asthma
Psych Med
Selective monitoring of physical sensations
J Pers Soc Psychol
Perception of added resistive loads in children with asthma [abstract]
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
Cited by (42)
Dissociating breathlessness symptoms from mood in asthma
2021, Biological PsychologyAsthma and Corticosteroid Responses in Childhood and Adult Asthma
2019, Clinics in Chest MedicineCitation Excerpt :However, it is acknowledged that this might not be an appropriate definition for children because many children with a confirmed diagnosis of severe asthma have normal spirometric results, but their symptoms remain poorly controlled.29,30 Although symptoms may be of most importance to patients, symptom perception is often poor in asthmatic children,31 making this less than ideal as a measure of response. Although studies in adults have relied on changes in lung function as an indicator of corticosteroid responsiveness,32 children with severe asthma often have less airflow limitation than do adults33–36 and do not always have concordance between lung function measures and symptoms.35
National study of asthma quality of life - Application of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ-M) by Marks in the Portuguese population
2008, Revista Portuguesa de PneumologiaPerceived triggers of asthma: Evaluation of a German version of the Asthma Trigger Inventory
2008, Respiratory MedicineCitation Excerpt :Convergent information from additional tests such as allergen provocation or total serum IgE could improve the association between patients’ perception and actual somatic responses. However, low associations are also typically found for other aspects of self-report and somatic markers in asthma, such as symptom report and lung function measurements,18,19 perceived airway obstruction and levels of experimentally induced obstruction,20 report of asthma-specific quality of life and airway inflammation,21 or more generally between variables of the self-report domain and physiological data.22 In practice, it is important to take into account such weak associations between self-report and somatic response.
The influence of corticosteroids on the perception of dyspnea in asthma
2007, Respiratory MedicineCitation Excerpt :The same holds for the duration of asthma. In patients with a longer history of disease the threshold for the detection of dyspnea might have changed over time, which has been discussed as ‘temporal adaptation’ in the literature.26 In addition, all studies exclusively examined adult patients.
eHealth Technologies for Monitoring Pediatric Asthma at Home: Scoping Review
2023, Journal of Medical Internet Research
This study was financially supported by the Netherlands Asthma Foundation.