Introduction:

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease, with an estimated prevalence of 9% in adolescents. Asthmatic adolescents have to deal not only with their physical symptoms but also with social and emotional problems, caused by being unable to keep up with their peers in daily activities.

Aims:

To evaluate the perception of quality of life (QoL) in an asthmatic adolescent population, followed by pediatric allergology consultants in a level II hospital.

Method:

Transversal cross-sectional study, including asthmatic patients aged between 10 and 17 years, evaluated in a pediatric allergology consult. The disease, risk factors, and associated comorbidities were investigated. Subsequently, the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) was applied.

Results:

Forty-one adolescents were evaluated, 68.3% male, with a mean age of 13.1±2.0 years. None of the patients had severe asthma and 13 (31.7%) had moderate asthma. Asthma was not controlled in 11 (26.8%) patients and 33 (80.5%) had normal pulmonary function tests (PFT). Adolescents with controlled asthma had higher scores in all domains of the questionnaire, with a statistically significant difference in scores (p<0.05). Asthma severity and the presence of altered PFT showed a statistically significant relationship (p<0.05), with worse scores in the symptom and emotional domains and PAQLQ total score. Regarding the risk factors studied, the value of FeNO and obesity, for the symptom domain, and anxiety for the emotional and symptoms domains, were related to a statistically significant worsening (p<0.05) of the QoL.

Conclusions:

QoL is directly related to the level of asthma control and severity. The use of a questionnaire in Portuguese, which allows the assessment of QoL, can be a useful tool both in encouraging adolescents to comply with the therapy and in guiding health professionals about their work.

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