Objective To examine the direction and the magnitude of associations between asthma and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a population-based sample of US adolescents. with asthma with symptoms of dry cough or wheezing reported significantly worse self-rated health (13.58% [95% CI 10.32%-17.67%] vs 7.54% [95% CI 6.50%-8.72%] for fair or poor health) significantly impaired physical health (PR CP-724714 = 1.34 = .004; adjusted actually unhealthy days 2.7 days vs 2 days) and impaired mental health (PR = 1.26 = .025). Among adolescents having asthma with symptoms those who currently smoked reported 1 more actually unhealthy day and 2.4 more mentally unhealthy days than those who did not smoke and did not have asthma. Those reporting limited physical functioning reported 2 more actually unhealthy days and 1. 5 more mentally unhealthy days than those who did not statement limited functioning. Conclusion Adolescents with asthma and symptoms reported worse HRQoL compared with those with asthma not reporting symptoms and those without asthma. Those who smoked or reported limited physical functioning reported worse physical CP-724714 and mental HRQoL. Reducing symptoms quitting smoking and improving physical functioning may improve HRQoL among adolescents with asthma. Asthma is a leading chronic illness among adolescents. In 2011 an estimated 4 million US adolescents (17.2%) aged 12-17 years reported ever having asthma and approximately 2.7 million (10.9%) reported currently having asthma.1 Asthma is also a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and is CP-724714 the leading cause of school absence among this age group.2 The incremental total annual direct medical expenditures (eg doctor/hospital visits and medicine) for pediatric asthma in the US total an estimated $6.39 billion (in 2007 dollars).3 The US Healthy People 2020 process has identified several important decennial objectives for adolescents with asthma including reducing asthma-related deaths.4 Asthma is a chronic reversible inflammatory disorder of the airways of the lungs.5 It reduces adolescents�� physical health6-8 CP-724714 (eg obesity physical limitations) psychological health9 (eg anxiety depression self-esteem) and social health10 (eg social interaction peer acceptance). It also adversely affects their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 11 defined as an individual��s or group��s perceived physical or mental health over time.19-21 The National Asthma Education and Prevention Rabbit polyclonal to Myocardin. Program Expert Panel recommends evaluating quality of life as part of routine assessment and CP-724714 monitoring for asthma among adolescents.5 Compared with adolescents without asthma adolescents with asthma report worse physical and mental HRQoL 12 15 22 especially the latter.23 Adolescents with poor control of asthma symptoms also exhibit concurrent psychological distress and thus experience poorer emotional well being and mental health.9 12 17 24 However The relationship between HRQoL and asthma in adolescents has not been well examined in the general population. Much of the current research on HRQoL in individuals with asthma has focused on adults 25 and many previous studies of adolescent HRQoL used clinical samples with limited generalizability. Our study overcomes these limitations by using a large nationally representative US adolescent sample over a period of 10 CP-724714 years. Findings from our study may be useful as baseline data for the Healthy People 2020 objectives related to adolescent HRQoL and asthma. The objective of the present study was to examine the direction and magnitude of associations among 3 asthma groups (by no means having asthma having asthma without symptoms and having asthma with symptoms) and 4 generic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HRQoL steps (self-rated health actually unhealthy days mentally unhealthy days and activity limitation days)17 18 among US adolescents (aged 12-17 years) in a nationally representative sample the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).28 Methods We used data from your 2001-2010 NHANES a nationally representative multistage cross-sectional survey designed to study the health and the nutritional status of the noninstitutionalized US.