Usefulness of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire in assessing the quality of life of parents of children with asthma

To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of parents of children with asthma and to analyze the internal consistency of the generic QOL tool World Health Organization Quality of Life, abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF).

Methods::

We evaluated the QOL of parents of asthmatic and healthy children aged between 8 and 16, using the generic WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. We also evaluated the internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha (αC), in order to determine whether the tool had good validity for the target audience.

Results::

The study included 162 individuals with a mean age of 43.8±13.6 years, of which 104 were female (64.2%) and 128 were married (79.0%). When assessing the QOL, the group of parents of healthy children had higher scores than the group of parents of asthmatic children in the four areas evaluated by the questionnaire (Physical, Psychological Health, Social Relationships and Environment), indicating a better quality of life. Regarding the internal consistency of the WHOQOL-BREF, values of ˛C were 0.86 points for the group of parents of asthmatic children, and 0.88 for the group of parents of healthy children.

Conclusions::

Parents of children with asthma have impaired quality of life due to their children's disease. Furthermore, the WHOQOL-BREF, even as a generic tool, showed to be practical and efficient to evaluate the quality of life of parents of asthmatic children. © 2015 Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS
Questionnaire; Quality of life; Asthma; Children; Adolescents; Caregivers

	Parents of asthmatic children (n=54)	Parents of healthy children (n=108)
Age (mean ± SD)	42,9±13,4	44,7±13,8
Female	38 (70,3%)	66 (61,1%)
Married	41 (75,9%)	87 (80,5%)
Elementary school	39 (72,2%)	72 (66,6%)
Unemployed	6 (11,1%)	5 (4,6%)

	Parents of asthmatic children (n=54)		Parents of healthy children (n=108)		DF	p-value
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Domain 1 --- Physical	63,03	±15,35	69,64	±12,10	–6,61	0,005^a
Domain 2 --- Psychological	63,66	±13,35	69,56	±9,45	–5,90	0,005^a
Domain 3 --- Social	63,74	±15,87	76,39	±12,76	–12,65	<0,001^a
Domain 4 --- Environmental	55,38	±13,20	64,47	±9,29	–9,08	<0,001^a
Perception of quality of life	69,91	±13,19	73,15	±14,78	–3,24	0,100
Perception of health	62,50	±19,87	70,60	±17,37	–8,10	0,007^a
Total score of domains	61,68	±10,64	70,63	±8,62	–8,95	<0,001^a

	αC asthmatics	αC healthy
1. How would you rate your quality of life?	0,85	0,88
2. How satisfied are you with your health?	0,85	0,87
3. To what extent do you feel that physical pain prevents you from doing what you need to do?	0,85	0,88
4. How much do you need medical treatment to function in your daily life?	0,86	0,88
5. How much do you enjoy life?	0,85	0,88
6. To what extent do you feel your life to be meaningful?	0,85	0,88
7. How well are you able to concentrate?	0,85	0,88
8. How safe do you feel in your daily life?	0,85	0,87
9. How healthy is your physical environment (climate, noise, pollution, appeals)?	0,86	0,88
10. Do you have enough energy for everyday life?	0,85	0,87
11. Are you able to accept your physical appearance?	0,86	0,87
12. Do you have you enough money to meet your needs?	0,85	0,88
13. How available to you is the information that you need in your day-to-day life?	0,85	0,88
14. To what extent do you have the opportunity for leisure activities?	0,84	0,88
15. How well are you able to get around?	0,85	0,87
16. How satisfied are you with your sleep?	0,84	0,88
17. How satisfied are you with your ability to perform your daily living activities?	0,84	0,87
18. How satisfied are you with your capacity for work?	0,85	0,87
19. How satisfied are you with yourself?	0,84	0,87
20. How satisfied are you with your personal relationships?	0,84	0,87
21. How satisfied are you with your sex life?	0,85	0,87
22. How satisfied are you with the support you get from your friends?	0,85	0,88
23. How satisfied are you with the conditions of your living place?	0,85	0,87
24. How satisfied are you with your access to health services?	0,85	0,88
25. How satisfied are you with your transportation?	0,85	0,88
26. How often do you have negative feelings such as bad mood, anxiety, and depression?	0,84	0,88

Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo R. Maria Figueiredo, 595 - 10o andar, 04002-003 São Paulo - SP - Brasil, Tel./Fax: (11 55) 3284-0308; 3289-9809; 3284-0051 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rpp@spsp.org.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] * Corresponding author. E-mail: crisron@gmail.com (C. Roncada).