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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Relationship between quality of life and behavioural disorders in children with persistent asthma: a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model

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AbstractKnowledge on multiple interdependences between quality of life (QoL) and behavioural problems in relation to asthma severity and control is undetermined. The aims of the study were: (i) to assess the relationship of QoL and behavioural problems with asthma severity and control (ii) to predict children’s “abnormal/borderline” status with variation in QoL. For these purposes a multicenter case-control study on 47 Severe Asthma (SA) and 94 Moderate Asthma (MA) children was performed. The MIMIC approach was applied to investigate the effect of SA and non-controlled asthma (NC) on QoL and behavioural disorders. Logistic regression was used to estimate probabilities of having an “abnormal/borderline” status with variation in QoL. The MIMIC model showed that the magnitude of the effect of SA and NC was larger on QoL (β = −0.37 and β = −0.30, respectively) than on behavioural problems (β = 0.27). With regards to the probability of having a borderline status, in MA a QoL of 1 returned a probability of 0.81, whereas in SA a QoL of 1 returned a probability of 0.89. In conclusion, SA children are highly affected by impaired QoL and behavioural problems. The MIMIC model allowed us to obtain a comprehensive assessment of QoL and behavioural problems with asthma severity and control.