Younger and older children had different experiences of asthma and its management
QUESTION: How do children experience their asthma and its management?
Design
Qualitative study.
Setting
2 asthma clinics (one located in a large teaching hospital and the other in a community centre) in North Carolina, USA.
Patients
32 children (20 boys, 51% white) who were either 7 or 12 years of age, had moderate to severe asthma, and had no other chronic diseases or mental disability.
Methods
Data were collected during 2 home visits. During the “drawing interview”, children were asked to draw a picture of the last time they were sick; if they did not select an asthma attack, they were asked to do so during the second visit. During the “figurative process interview”, children were shown a piece of paper with a point on a horizontal line, which represented an asthma attack. They were asked to describe their symptoms before and during the attack and how they managed each symptom. Data from 31 drawing interviews and 30 figurative process interviews were analysed and triangulated. Themes were extracted using a list of previously identified themes.
Main findings
Knowledge: in the drawing …
