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Validation of a questionnaire for asthma case identification in pre‐schools in L atin A merica
Author(s) -
Busi Luciano E.,
Sly Peter D.,
Llancaman Lidia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
respirology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1440-1843
pISSN - 1323-7799
DOI - 10.1111/resp.12575
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , spirometry , inhaler , family medicine , pediatrics , physical therapy , physical examination , predictive value
Background and objective We recently developed and validated a screening questionnaire for determining which school‐aged children may need further investigation to diagnose and manage asthma. In the present study we sought to extend this to pre‐school aged children. Methods Questions from the school‐aged questionnaire and literature on pre‐school asthma were used to inform a focus group of parents with pre‐school‐aged children with asthma to develop a screening questionnaire. Parents of children attending 6 randomly selected kindergartens in T relew, A rgentina ( n = 639) were invited to respond to the questionnaire. A reliability test–retest was undertaken in 187 randomly selected parents who completed the same questionnaire twice within 2–5 weeks. Clinical assessment included a standardized history and physical examination, spirometry before and after a β‐agonist inhaler, and chest X‐ray. Asthma was diagnosed by the pulmonologist. Results Completed surveys were returned for 620 children, 607 of whom underwent clinical evaluation. The mean age was 4.21 years (range of 3.01–5.50) and included 82.5% white and 49.4% male children. Asthma was diagnosed in 103 (17.0%) children); 72 (69.9%) of these children did not have a previous diagnosis of asthma. The specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the questionnaire were 93.2%, 86.1%, 57.8% and 98.4%, respectively. Conclusions We have demonstrated the utility of a screening questionnaire for identifying pre‐school‐aged children who may benefit from further assessment for asthma.