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]