The Relationship Between Intensity of Parental Anxiety and Severity of Asthma in 5- to 15-Year-Old Children

Background: Children of anxious parents are at higher risk of asthma exacerbation. Objectives: Due to the high prevalence of anxiety and depression in parents of children with chronic diseases and also, because of the high prevalence of asthma, the present study was designed to evaluate the relationship between the parental anxiety intensity and the children's asthma severity. Methods: It was a cross sectional study. Sampling was done continually among 134 parents of 5 to 15-years-old children with allergic asthma referred to allergy and asthma clinic in Sari during autumn and winter 2013. For checking parental anxiety we used Beck Anxiety Inventory and Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) for assessing asthma severity in children. To evaluate the relationship between parental anxiety and severity of asthma in children Gamma and Kendall's Tau test was used. Results: Kendall Tau and Gamma test showed that there is a significant relationship between the number of admissions (P < 0.001) and the number of attacks with parental anxiety. These tests also demonstrated that there is relationship between FEV/FVC (forced expiratory volume/forced vital capacity) and Beck test scores of parents (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The results of present study indicate the relationship between the intensity of anxiety for parents and severity of asthma in their children. Therefore, it is recommended that specialists do some interventions in order to control asthma better so that can better control their parental anxiety.