Accuracy of symptom perception in childhood asthma.

Children's reports of their asthma symptoms are used as important data in the assessment and management of pediatric asthma, but little is known about the accuracy of such reports. Children's subjective perception of the level of asthma symptoms was correlated with peak expiratory flow rate measures on average of 34 observations for 37 children with asthma. Subjective/objective correlations for a given child varied from 0.86 to -0.16. The children's perceptual accuracy was not related to age or sex, or to duration or severity of asthma. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.