AB 86. Validation of a questionnaire for the assesement of bronchial hyperresponsiveness in a greek population
Background: The assessment of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is considered essential for determining asthma diagnosis and asthma control. Recently a specific-condition questionnaire was developed on this purpose for asthma patients in primary care practice (Riemersa et al., 2009). The aim of the present study is to validate the BHR questionnaire in a Greek population.
Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Asthma Outpatient clinic of the Pulmonary Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Inclusion criteria were males and females, age 14 to 75, with recent history of asthma symptoms and without any other known respiratory/systemic disease that might affect BHR. During patient assessment, translated copies of the BHR questionnaire (BHRQ) were delivered to eligible subjects who had given informed consent. The gold standard method selected to validate the BHRQ was the mannitol challenge test.
Results: Sixty-two patients in total (21 males and 41 females) were recruited: mean age 34±14.9 years, mean total score of the questionnaire 54.39±40.88 years and mean subscores for symptoms and stimuli 28.29±19.97 and 26.10±24.07 years respectively. During mannitol challenge subjects showed a mean fall of FEV1 of 13.41±6.97% from baseline and a mean provocative dose of mannitol, PD15 of 373.11±240.92 mg. Spearman’s rank correlations among variables have shown significant positive correlations among all score variables and negative correlations among the scores and the mannitol test variables. Construct validity was assessed with principal component analysis and managed to identify one underlying factor that explains 42.4% of the variance. The reliability of the questionnaire, as estimated with Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.957, which is considered to be a very good reliability regarding the internal consistency of the questionnaire items. Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analysis has determined a cut off value of 26 of the total score for BHR response with sensitivity of 78.6% and specificity of 55%.
Conclusions: It is the first time that a BHR questionnaire was validated in a Greek population and it has been shown to be a usable and valid tool for assessing BHR in primary care practice.
