Comparison of students' and their parents' responses to an Asthma questionnaire

Abstract Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases during childhood. Unfortunately little definite epidemiologic data is available concerning Iranian children. Objective: To determine the degree of coordination to responses to an asthma symptom questionnaire completed by students and their parents in Isfahan junior high schools. Methods: A questionnaire based on the international study of asthma and allergy in childhood (ISSAC) was given to 2484 students and their parents during 1998-99. The answers were compared and analyzed by the McNemar X²-test. Findings: According to the findings the prevalence of wheeze, wheeze after exercise, wheeze with attack of dyspnea, sleep disturbed by wheeze, cough after exercise and history of asthma based on students and parental questionnaire were 37.8%, 48.6%, 20.9%, 13.8%, 66.2%, 6.1% and 27.6%, 22.8%, 13.5%, 16.2%, 20.8%, 8.2% respectively. The level of agreement between parents and students’ answers were not related to sex, parental educational level and history of smoking of parents. Conclusion: Evaluation of both students’ and their parents’ answers is recommended to determine exact prevalence rate of asthma.