Exercise-induced asthma as perceived by pediatric patients and their parents

Exercise is a frequent trigger of symptoms in asthmatic children and it worsens their quality of life. To compare the perception about exercise among asthmatic pediatric patients and their parents. Asthmatic patients with symptoms related to exercise, were tested with an exercise challenge test following the Tal protocol. Before testing, a questionnaire about symptoms triggered by exercise was answered by children and their parents. The data was analyzed with a Kappa correlation test. Seventy five patients, aged 6 to 15 years, were studied. Forty one percent exercised less than one hour per week. Although 64% reported to experience respiratory difficulty and 80% cough during exertion, 87% were willing to perform more exercise. Forty percent of all patients had a positive challenge test for exercise-induced asthma. Correlation between patient's and parent's answers about the effect of physical activity exercise was low, with a kappa of 0.53. There was no correlation between exercise test and the answers to the questionnaire. Children with asthma frequently have exercise-associated symptoms and parental perception about this problem is very low.