Quality of life after a 10-week pulmonary rehabilitation program among children with asthma in Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City.

  The objective of the study was to assess the quality of life (QOL) among children with asthma in Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City using the pediatric asthma quality of life questionnaire (PAQLQ) after a 10-week pulmonary rehabilitation program. A total of sixteen (16) children with asthma were utilized as subjects.

   The PAQLQ, which was validated by Juniper, et al, was composed of 23 questions, all equally weighted, and divided into three areas: activity limitations, symptoms, and emotional function using a 7- point scale questionnaire among children with asthma. Activity limitations talk about the difficulty of a child to perform an activity such as running, being with family or pets, and playing during recess due to their asthma. On the other hand, symptoms talk about how frustrated the children can be when asthma attacked at any point of the day, especially at night. Lastly, emotional domain included how asthma affects the respondents' mood, as it frightens them or at times, scares them. All domains--symptom, activity limitation and emotional function had a pre-rehabilitation result of quite bothered with a mean of 2.96, 3.54 and 3.25 respectively, which implied that asthma caused difficulties in their daily activities or living. Based on the results, there was a significant difference in the quality of life before and after the rehabilitation with a pre-rehabilitation mean score of M=3.92, SD=0.8, in comparison with a post-rehabilitation mean of M=3.06, SD=0.75. All domains improved after the program especially on the symptoms domain with a mean of 3.86, which was interpreted as moderate. Likewise, activity limitation and emotional function also resulted to moderate post-rehabilitation with 4.18 and 3.95, respectively. The program included information about their disease and its management. It also included breathing exercises, knowledge on proper hygiene and well-balanced diet, discussion with the parents regarding their contribution to the management of asthma among their children, aerobic exercises and physical reconditioning.

   In conclusion, pulmonary rehabilitation program was effective in improving the quality of life on young children especially among children with asthma. For future studies, the researchers allow this data to be used as baseline and recommend getting the total lung function. To widen the scope of the study, additional follow-up sessions for the pulmonary rehabilitation program must be enhanced to cater the short attention span of children, and assess the quality of life of guardians or parents using the Pediatric Asthma Caregiver Quality of Life Questionnaire, to know their point of view in relation to their child's asthma.