[Understanding teenagers' experiences of asthma. A qualitative approach to adolescents' perceptions of the disease and management of the symptoms].

Abstract

In a qualitative investigation carried out in different environments (hospital, school, home) among 12-to-21-year-old asthmatics, we describe their perceptions of a pathology that is at once chronic and intermittent. More specifically, we show how an asthma attack constitutes a traumatic experience occurring in a temporality characterized by bodily upheaval. We describe the emotional labor provided by young asthmatics in their interpretation of their bodily signs, which are often read differently than in the medical sphere. The intermittency of the disease and the occurrence of crises in specific situations lead adolescents to achieve improved knowledge of their bodies. In this study, we analyze the roles of supports (inhalers…) and adaptative techniques in the development of know-how enabling them to autonomously treat their symptoms and monitor the signs of an upcoming attack.