The relationship of children's hope to pediatric asthma treatment adherence

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between hope and adherence to a daily inhaled steroid regimen among 48 asthma patients ages 8–12 years old who participated in a 14 day adherence assessment. Participants completed the Children's Hope Scale, and parents completed a questionnaire aimed at demographic and disease-related information. Adherence was measured by electronic monitoring of the use of the participant's metered-dose inhaler. A multivariate model predicting nonadherence was built, including FEV₁ in the first step and children's hope level in the second step. This model was a significant predictor of adherence (Nagelkerke R ² = 0.24, p = 0.01). No other demographic or psychosocial variables were significant predictors of adherence. These findings highlight the need to attend to psychosocial predictors of adherence, specifically hope, and may help practitioners target these factors in their efforts to increase adherence among pediatric asthma patients.

Keywords:

• Children
• asthma
• hope
• positive psychology
• adherence

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant HD 34784, Michael A. Rapoff, Ph.D., Principal Investigator.