HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) web only appendices All Versions of this Article: adc.2007.117978v1 92/10/861    most recent Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in ADC Online Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Strippoli, M.-P. F Articles by Kuehni, C. E Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Strippoli, M.-P. F Articles by Kuehni, C. E Topic Collections Relevant Article

A parent-completed respiratory questionnaire for 1-year-old children: repeatability

¹ Swiss Paediatric Respiratory Research Group, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
² The Leicester Children’s Asthma Centre, Division of Child Health, Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr Claudia E Kuehni, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Finkenhubelweg 11, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland; kuehni{at}ispm.unibe.ch

Background and aims: There are few standardised questionnaires for the assessment of respiratory symptoms in preschool children. We have developed and tested the short-term repeatability of a postal questionnaire on respiratory symptoms for 1-year-old children.

Methods: A newly developed postal questionnaire for the assessment of wheeze and other respiratory symptoms was sent to parents of a population-based random sample of 4300 children aged 12–24 months. After an interval of 3 months, a random sample of 800 respondents received the questionnaire a second time. The responses were compared using Cohen’s kappa () to assess agreement corrected for chance.

Results: The first questionnaire was returned by 3194 (74%) families, the second one by 460/800 (58%). Repeatability was excellent ( 0.80–0.96) for questions on household characteristics, environmental exposures and family history, good ( 0.61–0.80) for questions on prevalence, severity and treatment of wheeze, and moderate ( 0.39–0.66) for chronic cough and upper respiratory symptoms.

Conclusions: This short postal questionnaire designed for use in population-based studies has excellent repeatability for family and household characteristics and good repeatability for questions on wheeze. Short-term changes in symptom status might be responsible for variable answers on recent chronic cough and upper respiratory symptoms. Overall, the questionnaire is a valuable instrument for community-based research on respiratory symptoms in 1 to 2-year-old children.

Keywords: preschool; asthma; kappa; repeatability; questionnaire

Relevant Article

A brief digest of the October issue
Arch. Dis. Child. 2007 92: e10. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. E. Kuehni, M-P. F. Strippoli, E. S. Chauliac, and M. Silverman Snoring in preschool children: prevalence, severity and risk factors Eur. Respir. J., February 1, 2008; 31(2): 326 - 333. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]