Predictors of the Quality of Life for Children with Asthma: An Application of Quantile Regression

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to clarify factors that associated with the quality of life for patients with asthma. Quantile regression method was used to estimate the effects of a set of covariates on the quantiles of quality of life distribution. The research subjects were 216 children with asthma who attended the Asthma Pay-by-Quality Program initiated by the Bureau of National Health Insurance in Taiwan. Study results indicate that ordinary least square method is not sufficient to explain the effects of associated factors on quality of life for children with asthma across all distributions. Also, the results of quantile regression indicate that daytime symptoms, night time symptom, and attitude towards asthma have significant impacts for children with asthma, though not appeal to affect cross all quantiles of the sample distribution.