Longitudinal study of quality of life among children with acute respiratory infection and cough
Abstract
Purpose
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs), and associated symptoms such as cough, are frequently experienced among children and impose a burden on families (e.g., use of medical resources and time off work/school). However, there are little data on changes in, and predictors of, quality of life (QoL) over the duration of an ARI with cough (ARIwC) episode. We therefore aimed to determine cough-specific QoL and identify its influencing factors among children with ARIwC, at the time of presentation to a pediatric emergency department (ED), and over the following 4 weeks.
Methods
Data from 283 children aged < 15 years were included in our analyses. We used the validated parent-proxy children’s acute cough-specific QoL questionnaire (PAC-QoL) at each time-point. Linear regression and mixed effect modeling were used to identify factors influencing QoL at baseline and over the follow-up period.
Results
Median PAC-QoL at baseline was 2.7 (IQR 2.1–3.6) and significantly improved by Day-7 (4.9, IQR 3.8–6.1) and Day-14 (6.59, IQR 5.1–7.0), both p < 0.001. The improvements in median PAC-QoL between Days-14, -21, and -28 were not significant. Regression modeling identified that day-cough severity, night-cough severity, and financial concerns had the highest impact on both baseline, and follow-up, PAC-QoL scores. There were five additional independent significant factors at baseline and six at follow-up.
Conclusions
Quality of life is considerably impaired at presentation to ED, but improves significantly by Days-7 and -14. As cough severity and financial concerns had the highest impact on QoL, effectively managing cough to reduce the clinical and financial burden on children and families is important.
Keywords
Acute respiratory infection Cough Parent-proxy quality of life Pediatrics Children Emergency departmentNotes
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people and departments for their assistance with this study: the RCH Emergency Department and Paediatric Emergency Research Unit; the Respiratory Physicians (particularly Prof Alan Isles, A/Prof Brent Masters, Dr Danielle Wurzel, Dr Vikas Goyal and Dr Nitin Kapur), Respiratory Scientists and administration staff at the Queensland Children’s Respiratory Centre; the Medical Records staff at the Royal Children’s Hospital and members of the Cough Asthma and Airways Research Group and Respiratory infection Outreach Research Teams, particularly Ben Arnold, Daniel Arnold, Simon Foster, Kate Shackleton, Clementine Shevill, and Jack Roberts.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Supplementary material
References
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