TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantifying asthma symptoms in adults
T2 - The Lara Asthma Symptom Scale
AU - Wood, Pamela Runge
AU - Smith, Brad
AU - O'Donnell, Louise
AU - Galbreath, Autumn Dawn
AU - Lara, Marielena
AU - Forkner, Emma
AU - Peters, Jay I.
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Office of Minority Health (OMH), grants no. D52MP03114-01-0 and D52MP03114-02-0, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), grant no. R01 EH000095-01.
Funding Information:
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Lara is employed by Rand Corporation. J. I. Peters has received grant support from the National Institutes of Health and Centocor and is on the speakers' bureau for Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Pfizer. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2007/12
Y1 - 2007/12
N2 - Background: Accurate assessment of asthma symptoms is critical in research and clinical settings. A multidimensional asthma control questionnaire could provide more accurate information about asthma symptoms than global assessments, which often overestimate asthma control. Objective: We sought to evaluate the efficacy of the Lara Asthma Symptom Scale (LASS) in adults with persistent asthma. Methods: Participants were 18 to 64 years of age with persistent asthma. Data were collected at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. We described the construct and predictive validity of the LASS by comparing it with measures of pulmonary function (FEV1), asthma-specific quality of life (Juniper's Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire [AQLQ]), and health care use (emergency department [ED] visits and hospitalizations). Results: Three hundred eighty-three participants provided baseline data. The LASS had high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach α = .84). LASS scores correlated significantly with baseline measures of FEV1 (-0.20, P = .0002), AQLQ (-0.68, P < .0001), ED visits (0.17, P = .002), and hospitalizations (0.15, P = .008). Baseline LASS scores were associated significantly with ED visits (P = .03) and hospitalizations (P = .04) over the subsequent 12 months. Change in LASS scores over time correlated significantly with changes in FEV1 (-0.22, P = .001) and AQLQ (-0.70, P < .001). Conclusions: The LASS demonstrated good internal consistency, excellent validity based on concurrent criterion validity and longitudinal predictive validity, and good discriminatory properties in a heterogeneous sample of adults with persistent asthma. Clinical implications: This study validates a simple multidimensional asthma questionnaire as a clinical tool in the assessment of asthma control in adults.
AB - Background: Accurate assessment of asthma symptoms is critical in research and clinical settings. A multidimensional asthma control questionnaire could provide more accurate information about asthma symptoms than global assessments, which often overestimate asthma control. Objective: We sought to evaluate the efficacy of the Lara Asthma Symptom Scale (LASS) in adults with persistent asthma. Methods: Participants were 18 to 64 years of age with persistent asthma. Data were collected at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. We described the construct and predictive validity of the LASS by comparing it with measures of pulmonary function (FEV1), asthma-specific quality of life (Juniper's Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire [AQLQ]), and health care use (emergency department [ED] visits and hospitalizations). Results: Three hundred eighty-three participants provided baseline data. The LASS had high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach α = .84). LASS scores correlated significantly with baseline measures of FEV1 (-0.20, P = .0002), AQLQ (-0.68, P < .0001), ED visits (0.17, P = .002), and hospitalizations (0.15, P = .008). Baseline LASS scores were associated significantly with ED visits (P = .03) and hospitalizations (P = .04) over the subsequent 12 months. Change in LASS scores over time correlated significantly with changes in FEV1 (-0.22, P = .001) and AQLQ (-0.70, P < .001). Conclusions: The LASS demonstrated good internal consistency, excellent validity based on concurrent criterion validity and longitudinal predictive validity, and good discriminatory properties in a heterogeneous sample of adults with persistent asthma. Clinical implications: This study validates a simple multidimensional asthma questionnaire as a clinical tool in the assessment of asthma control in adults.
KW - Health status indicators
KW - Hispanic Americans
KW - asthma
KW - asthma symptoms
KW - outcome assessment
KW - psychometrics
KW - quality of life
KW - questionnaire
KW - severity of illness index
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaci.2007.09.025
DO - 10.1016/j.jaci.2007.09.025
M3 - Article
C2 - 17981316
AN - SCOPUS:36749008691
SN - 0091-6749
VL - 120
SP - 1368
EP - 1372
JO - Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
JF - Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
IS - 6
ER -