Parents are poor at labelling wheeze in children: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Noisy breathing is a common presenting symptom in children. The purpose of this study is to (a) assess parental ability to label wheeze, (b) compare the ability of parents of children with and without asthma to label wheeze and (c) determine factors affecting parental ability to label wheeze correctly. METHODS: This cross-sectional study in a tertiary hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia involved parents of children with asthma. Parents of children without asthma were the control group. Eleven validated video clips showing wheeze, stridor, transmitted noises, snoring or normal breathing were shown to the parents. Parents were asked, in English or Malay, “What do you call the sound this child is making?” and “Where do you think the sound is coming from?” RESULTS: Two hundred parents participated in this study: 100 had children with asthma while 100 did not. Most (71.5 %) answered in Malay. Only 38.5 % of parents correctly labelled wheeze. Parents were significantly better at locating than labelling wheeze (OR 2.4, 95 % CI 1.64–3.73). Parents with asthmatic children were not better at labelling wheeze than those without asthma (OR1.04, 95 % CI 0.59–1.84). Answering in English (OR 3.4, 95 % CI 1.69–7.14) and having older children with asthma (OR 9.09, 95 % CI 3.13–26.32) were associated with correct labelling of wheeze. Other sounds were mislabelled as wheeze by 16.5 % of respondents. CONCLUSION: Parental labelling of wheeze was inaccurate especially in the Malay language. Parents were better at identifying the origin of wheeze rather than labelling it. Physicians should be wary about parental reporting of wheeze as it may be inaccurate. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12887-016-0616-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.