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Children and Asthma in America is one of the largest and most comprehensive national surveys ever conducted about asthma in children. Questions explored asthma prevalence, the frequency and severity of symptoms, utilization of emergency care, quality of life, disease knowledge and use of medication. This survey had two main components:
- A survey of a national probability sample of 801 children, four to 18 years of age, with current asthma was conducted to yield current national estimates. This sample was identified by systematically screening a geographically stratified national sample of 41,433 U.S. households by telephone. Either the parent or the caregiver most knowledgeable about the designated child with asthma in the household was interviewed about the child’s asthma if the designated child was four to 15, while children 16 to 18 years of age were interviewed directly about their asthma.
- A shorter interview with a subset of identical questions was completed with 284 children with asthma, 10 to 15 years of age, after their parents had been interviewed. A comparison of the responses of parents and children with asthma about the child’s asthma provided a measure of agreement between parents and children about asthma symptoms and their effect on the child.
The interviews were conducted by telephone from February 25 to May 7, 2004. The parent/patient interview averaged 47 minutes in length. Full interviews were completed with 74% of the eligible cases identified in the household screening.
The maximum expected sampling error for a simple random sample of 801 would be +/- 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Children and Asthma in America should be considered a landmark study in asthma research because:
- Scope: The 801 asthma patients identified from a national probability sample of 41,433 U.S. households is comparable to the largest national heath surveys conducted by the federal government, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1994) and the National Health Interview Survey (2002); moreover, these federal health surveys do not explore the burden of disease or asthma management in any detail
- Depth: The 47 minute telephone interview covered the asthma symptoms, burden of illness, impact on quality of life and disease treatment and management issues in more depth than any other national probability sample of children with asthma of comparable size that is currently available
- The parallel interviews with adolescent patients and their adult caregivers provided a unique insight into communication issues between parents and children that may affect the management and treatment of asthma
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