Studying the Barriers of Asthma Care among Asthmatic Children in Saudi Arabia: Maternal Perspectives

There are barriers in the management of asthma, which may impact the quality of outcomes. The goal
of this study is to explore these barriers. A cross-sectional study was conducted on interview data
collected through 2019 from mothers of children (aged 6-12 years) with asthma visiting, for
convenience, a public shopping mall. The interviewees were randomly selected, because they met the
inclusion criteria. Participants were considered if the mother answered “yes” to the following
questions: Has your child had physician-diagnosed asthma? Is your child currently taking asthma
medications of asthma? Two community nurses conducted the interviews. Data was obtained using
administrative questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 (IBM Inc., Chicago, IL,
USA). Three hundred mothers participated in this study. Their average age was 36.8 years, 55% were
housekeepers by profession, and 34% had obtained less than high school education. The majority of
children (61%) were males, 45% had moderate asthma, and 42% had mild asthma. The most
frequent types of barriers identified by parents were environmental factors, followed by health care
providers, the health care system, and patient or family characteristics. Mothers were specifically
concerned about the use, safety, and long-term complications of medications, the impact of exercise
limitation on their child’s quality of life, and their own quality of life. This study showed several barriers
against asthma care in Saudi Arabia, which mainly related to environmental or personal
characteristics.