do families and health care providers speak the same language when describing asthma symptoms?
Yoos HL; Kitzman H; McMullen A; Sidora-Arcoleo K; Anson E University of Rochester school of Nursing, Rochester, NY, USA. lorrie_yoos@urmc.rochester.edu INTRODUCTION: Effective communication about symptoms is a critical prerequisite to appropriate treatment. Study aims were to: (a) document the symptoms that children with asthma and their parents associate with asthma, (b) identify differences between the “professional model “of asthma symptoms and the “lay model,” (c) describe the family’s proposed action in response to symptoms, and (d) investigate the congruence between parental assessment of “good control” and severity obtained using National Asthma Education and Prevention Program criteria. METHOD: Children with asthma and their parents (N = 228) were recruited from diverse clinical practice sites. Parents and children described symptoms they associated with an asthma exacerbation and their proposed action. Perceived asthma control was compared with a structured assessment of sever
