The study has been expanded to include patients with asthma as well as those with other diseases such as atopic dermatitis or immunological problems. Further, pediatric patients who participate in both the Day Treatment Program and the Outpatient Consultation Service are being asked to participate. As with the previous study, patients and their families are asked to complete questionnaires at the time of their admission. Permission will be obtained to send for their medical records, which provide detailed and objective information about their health care utilization. Patients with diagnoses other than asthma are asked to provide information at the same time points, at admission and regularly for the next two years.
Questionnaires focus on overall health and quality of life.
Medical record data regarding health care utilization will also be obtained for these patients. The question of which children develop asthma has received much attention within the past decade. The genetic basis of asthma has been well established, but the relatively low co-occurrence of the phenotype among twins underscores the significant role played by environmental factors. Several investigations have prospectively followed genetically at-risk samples to elucidate the role of environmental factors, but none has focused centrally on psychological contributions to asthma onset. Yet, given consistent data showing that psychological factors play a role in childhood asthma, particularly in more severe cases, and given reports of psychological events triggering adult onset asthma, reviews in this area have repeatedly emphasized the need for a prospective study of psychological contributions to asthma onset in children.