Material and Methods
The required approvals were obtained from the Institutional Review Board
(IRB) committee and the Department of Paediatrics. A prospective
observational study was conducted at Pediatric Allergy and Asthma clinic
of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, a 650-bedded tertiary care
referral hospital of North India. Children with suspected allergic
rhinitis and/or asthma, who presented to pediatric allergy or asthma
clinic of a hospital-based set-up and satisfied inclusion criteria were
made to fill a predesigned validated questionnaire to assess various
domains of quality of life in children and their caregivers. Data
collection was initiated after approval from hospital ethics committee
and was started from January 2019 and continued till September 2019.
The inclusion criteria included children aged between 7- 18 years,
suffering or have suffered from symptoms suggestive of allergic rhinitis
and/or asthma who consented to being part of the study. Exclusion
criteria included children with alternate respiratory comorbidities
(aspiration pneumonia, respiratory complaints due to Myo-neuropathies,
neonatal history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, tracheal or bronchial
lesions, vocal cord dysfunction), other chronic medical conditions like
congenital heart disease, infectious etiology, patient in ICU or on home
ventilation. Caregiver who spent 75% of time with the child was
considered primary caregiver13.
Quality of life was defined as the measure of emotions,
allergic rhinitis/asthma severity/symptoms, activity limitations and
visits to emergency departments. Asthma is a heterogeneous
disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It is
defined by the history of respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, shortness
of breath, chest tightness and cough that vary over time and in
intensity, together with variable expiratory airflow limitation. Based
on GINA guidelines, Asthma is classified into intermittent, mild,
moderate and severe variety8. [Annexure 1]Allergic rhinitis is an inflammation of the nasal membranes
that is characterized by sneezing, nasal congestion, nasal itching and
rhinorrhea in any combination2.It is classified based
on the ARIA guidelines. [Annexure 2]