چكيده لاتين :
Background: The international study of asthma and allergies
in childhood (ISAAC) is used to define the prevalence and
severity of asthma in different regions, In this study we
followed the performance of the ISAAC video and written
questionnaires (YQ and WQ) to classify asthma in 13-14
yr-old schoolchildren,
Methods: The present study was carried out on 3540
schoolchildren 13 to 14-yrs-old using the YQ and WQ. The
students were also asked to answer a separate question if they
had ever been clinically diagnosed as asthmatic. The Kappa
index was used to find degree of agreement between YQ and
WQ regarding asthma symptoms. The sensitivity, specificity
and Youdeuיs index of both questionnaires were also determined.
Results: The most frequent asthma symptom was wheeze after
exercise in both YQ (15%) and WQ (23%). Correlations
between positive responses to the corresponding questions in
the YQ and WQ were significant (P(LESS THAN)O.OO I). The sensitivity of
both questionnaires to the question of asthma diagnosis by
physician ranged between 0.16 and 0.68. Except for wheeze
limiting speech and current wheeze, the WQ had higher value
of Youdens index (0.25 - 0.46). The specificity of questions
in YQ for asthma diagnosis by physician was ranged between
0.84 and 0.99.
Conclusion: Both WQ and YQ had low sensitivity, but WQ
showed higher value of Youdens index and the YQ exhibited
good specificity. Therefore, one may consider the WQ for
prevalence and YQ for relative risk studies.
