Health care education, delivery, and qualityQuantifying asthma symptoms in adults: The Lara Asthma Symptom Scale
Section snippets
Participants
Data for this study were obtained from the baseline and follow-up evaluations of adult participants in the South Texas Asthma Management Project, a large, single-center, prospective, randomized controlled trial of disease management interventions to improve clinical asthma outcomes.13 The institutional review boards of all participating institutions approved this study. All participants signed a written informed consent form. Adult participants were between 18 and 64 years of age with a
Results
We enrolled 429 adults, of whom 383 (89%) spoke English as their primary language. Three hundred seventy-five had complete LASS data at baseline and verified asthma health care use data (n = 224 had valid questionnaire data at both baseline and 12 months). At baseline, subjects who failed to complete the 12-month questionnaires were similar to completers in symptom score, severity, health care use, quality of life, and most demographic variables. Noncompleters were younger (mean age, 39 vs 45
Discussion
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. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach α = .84) was in the same range as previously reported values for another validated questionnaire, the ACT (0.79-0.85).6, 23 Our findings of strong correlations with other measures of asthma health status are
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Cited by (25)
Researching asthma across the ages: Insights from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Asthma Network
2014, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines highlight asthma control as a major goal of therapy, and a patient’s level of asthma control is a key factor in guidelines for how clinicians should modify their management of the disease.34 Ideally, in cross-age studies it would be most efficient and simplest to use an instrument that has been developed for patients of all ages (eg, Royal College of Physicians Three Questions35 and Lara Asthma Symptom Scale36); however, there is limited information on the validity, reliability, and diversity of populations tested for these instruments. The Asthma Control Questionnaire and Asthma Control Test (ACT) are commonly used instruments to assess asthma control; however, they are only applicable to older children.
Asthma control measurement using five different questionnaires: A prospective study
2013, Respiratory MedicineCitation Excerpt :Whether these scores are categorical or continuous, predicted values have been proposed to define two or three levels of control. Although several scores have been published [2–10], they differ by the factors that were considered and the weight that was given to each item [1]. They are mainly used according to local preference for the everyday management of asthma but are also the pillar of asthma assessment in many studies on asthma treatment or monitoring modalities.
Quality of life, health care utilization, and control in older adults with asthma
2013, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In PracticeAsthma outcomes: Quality of life
2012, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyAsthma outcomes: Composite scores of asthma control
2012, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Responsiveness over time (with no specifically prescribed therapeutic intervention) has been demonstrated for 8 instruments in at least 1 sample (Table VII), and responsiveness to specific therapy has been demonstrated for 3 instruments (Table VII). Minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) have been defined for the ACQ (0.5 point),13 the ACT (3 points),14 and the Lara Asthma Symptom Scale in adults (7 points).15 Asthma control score instruments that are clinically useful in individual patients may not be effective for measuring differences between populations in clinical trials and vice versa.
Effect of age on asthma control: Results from the National Asthma Survey
2011, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Although much research and public attention has focused on children and young adults, there has been little research on older adults (>65 years) with asthma.3 In fact, many asthma trials4–7 have routinely excluded participants older than 65 years. It is estimated that approximately 2 million adults older than 65 years in the United States carry a diagnosis of asthma.
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.
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.