Sensitivity and Specificity of Self-Reported Symptoms for Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm Diagnosis in Children

Objective: Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is a common condition in elite athletes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of self-reported EIB symptoms in children. Methods: In a cross sectional study in 2005, all soccer player boys of 3 football schools of Shahr Rey a town in the south of Tehran, enrolled in this study. All subjects were asked for the presence of four cardinal symptoms of EIB (cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, chest pain/discomfort) during and after exercise. Self reported symptom-based EIB was defined as having at least two out of four symptoms. Findings were compared to spirometric criteria as a gold standard test. Findings: A total of 371 boys were enrolled in this study. The mean age of children was 11.67 ± 1.53 years (range 7-16 years). According to spirometric findings, 74 (19.9 %) subjects had EIB. The sensitivity and specificity of self-reported symptoms for EIB diagnosis were 13.0 % and 89.9 %, respectively. Conclusion: Self-reported symptoms of EIB in children can be useful for epidemiological study. Our results in Iran are comparable with studies in other countries and point to a relatively high prevalence of EIB among athlete children.