Abstract :
Introduction: Childhood asthma represents a significant burden, not only in terms of morbidity and reduced quality of life but also in terms of healthcare costs, as reflected by the high rates of unscheduled emergency department visits, hospitalization, and school absenteeism. Parents play a key link in asthma management and adherence to treatment regimen in the early years of childhood before children can manage their asthma independently. However, some parents have misconceptions regarding asthma and its medication, which could in turn influence children’s control of asthma.
Objective: To find out the effect of parental beliefs and practices with respect to their knowledge about etiology, folk beliefs, home remedies, alternative therapies, etiology and pharmacotherapy in childhood asthma influence the pharmacotherapy and outcome of asthma management.
Materials and Methods: The hospital based cross sectional study was carried out on a convenience sample of 82 parents of children, 5-14 years of age and clinically diagnosed with asthma of any form in the Department of Pediatrics, F.M. Medical College & Hospital, a tertiary care teaching hospital in Balasore town in the eastern part of India. The parents’ beliefs and practices were captured with the help of a pre-designed and validated questionnaire. Descriptive analytical statictics was used to analyse the demographic data. Chi square test was used to find out the association of beliefs, use of home remedies, folk beliefs and alternative therapies and the use of prescribed asthma medications as per standard reference. GraphPad Prism free trial version 7.0 was used for statistical analysis. Statistical significance was taken at a level of p ? 0.05.
Results: Majority of the children were in the age group of 10-14 years with a male predominance. Most of the primary care givers less than 40 years age and literate, 30 (36.6%) having more than two children and a family history of asthma. The common beliefs were that asthma was chest allergy, of hereditary origin. Exposure to dust, indoor smoke believed to be a significant potential triggering factor for asthma attack The participants (68.2%) believed that inhaled steroids had more side effects lead to dependency also believed using inhaler only when serious. Domiciliary treatment was preferred. ????-agonist were the commonest medications.
Conclusion: Parental beliefs and practices have a predominant role in the management of asthma in children. In order to enhance the level of perceptions among caregivers, education should include knowledge about asthma and its management, as there might be misperceptions about the use of inhalers and the safety of inhaled corticosteroids.
Keyword :
Childhood asthma, Parental beliefs, Practices