The disease impact on caregiver questionnaire: Assessing the child respiratory allergy impact on parents' quality of life

Objectives: Rhinitis and asthma impact on patients' Quality of Life (QoL) has been widely studied, however allergic diseases may affect also the caregivers. Clinical experience suggests that children's allergic asthma and rhinitis may have different impact on family members, due to the different disease severity and clinical aspects. Aim of our work was to evaluate, through an observational multicenter study, the impact of childrens' respiratory allergy on parents' QoL, assessed by means of a new generic questionnaire recently validated on the Italian population: the Disease Impact On Caregiver (DIOC). Methods: 119 caregivers of allergic children (75 asthmatics and 44 rhinitics) were consecutively enrolled and administered the DIOC. For each DIOC item the caregiver was requested to assess, on a 10cm horizontal visual analogue scale, the child disease impact on 31 aspects of his/her own daily life (which subsequently are grouped in four factors). Each score ranges from 0 (no negative impact) to 100 (maximum negative impact). Results Compared to rhinitis, children's asthma had a statistically significant worse impact on many aspects of the caregivers' life (16 items out of the 31 assessed, among which: resistance to stress, mood, emotional stability, amount of spare time and leisure activities). The worse impact of asthma versus rhinitis was confirmed in the following factors: Performance (24.0±18.2 vs. 11.5±17.8), Personal gratification (26.3±20.5 vs. 12.1±16.5) and Psychophysical endurance (35.0±24.8 vs. 18.8±21.7). In the socio-emotional domain no differences emerged. Conclusions Compared to parents of rhinitics, parents of asthmatic children refer to be more compromised in daily life. The DIOC could enable the clinicians to monitor the illness and the therapy impacts on families, thus contributing to build a bridge connecting the individual and the social dimensions of health care.