Children's Health Survey for Asthma

The measurement of pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important and expanding area in health care and health services research. Tools to assess functional status or HRQOL go beyond traditional physiological assessments by incorporating a multidimensional definition of health that encompasses physical, psychological and social aspects.

Application of these measures includes describing the health status of pediatric populations, examining the outcomes of various conditions and treatment methods, and potentially improving clinical decision-making by capturing the broader impact of disease and treatment based on child and parent perspectives.

The prevalence of asthma in the pediatric population, combined with the financial, social and emotional costs to children and their families provided impetus for the development of the Children's Health Survey for Asthma (CHSA).

Asthma-specific domains include:

• Physical Health: Physical symptoms and pain experienced by the child
• Activity: Child and family's ability to carry out everyday activities
• Emotional Health: Impact of asthma on the mental well-being of both the child and family

Additional items cover health care utilization, asthma triggers, and family demographics.

The CHSA is a self-report measure completed by parents of children with chronic asthma between the ages of 5 and 16. Psychometric properties of the CHSA have been published in Pediatrics 1999;104(6). Over 600 copies of the parent-report instrument have been disseminated to pediatricians and health services researchers. The measure has also been used in several large, federally-funded studies including the Pediatric Asthma Care PORT II.

The CHSA-C is a child-report version of the CHSA. Psychometric properties of the CHSA-C have been published in Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, 2008; 21(2):89-98.

English CHSA and CHSA-C versions and the US Spanish CHSA version are available for use in non-commercial research or practice applications at no cost.