BACKGROUND: In children with asthma, discrepancies between objective indicators of airway obstruction and symptom perception are often observed. Although visual analogue scale (VAS) has been proposed as a useful tool for assessing accurate symptom perception, previous studies conducted in children with asthma included only small cohorts. A study was therefore designed to investigate the usefulness of VAS in establishing a reliable relationship between breathlessness perception and lung function in a large cohort of children with clinical diagnosis of asthma. METHODS: A total of 703 children [470 boys and 233 girls, median age 10.29 (8.33-12.58) yr] with asthma were included in this cross-sectional, real-life study. Perception of breathlessness was assessed by using VAS, and lung volumes and expiratory flows were measured by spirometry. RESULTS: Most children had intermittent or mild persistent asthma (93.3%), and only 46 children had a significant bronchial obstruction defined by FEV(1) values <80% of predicted. Globally, VAS was significantly, even though weakly, related to lung function. Analyzing children with bronchial obstruction, a moderate relationship between both FEV(1) (r = 0.47) and FEF(25-75) (r = 0.42) and VAS was detected. A VAS value of 6 was found to be a reliable cutoff for discriminating children with bronchial obstruction (AUC 0.83 at ROC curve; OR 9.4). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that VAS might be considered a useful tool to assess symptom perception, mainly in children with airflow limitation.
BACKGROUND: In children with asthma, discrepancies between objective indicators of airway obstruction and symptom perception are often observed. Although visual analogue scale (VAS) has been proposed as a useful tool for assessing accurate symptom perception, previous studies conducted in children with asthma included only small cohorts. A study was therefore designed to investigate the usefulness of VAS in establishing a reliable relationship between breathlessness perception and lung function in a large cohort of children with clinical diagnosis of asthma. METHODS: A total of 703 children [470 boys and 233 girls, median age 10.29 (8.33-12.58) yr] with asthma were included in this cross-sectional, real-life study. Perception of breathlessness was assessed by using VAS, and lung volumes and expiratory flows were measured by spirometry. RESULTS: Most children had intermittent or mild persistent asthma (93.3%), and only 46 children had a significant bronchial obstruction defined by FEV(1) values <80% of predicted. Globally, VAS was significantly, even though weakly, related to lung function. Analyzing children with bronchial obstruction, a moderate relationship between both FEV(1) (r = 0.47) and FEF(25-75) (r = 0.42) and VAS was detected. A VAS value of 6 was found to be a reliable cutoff for discriminating children with bronchial obstruction (AUC 0.83 at ROC curve; OR 9.4). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that VAS might be considered a useful tool to assess symptom perception, mainly in children with airflow limitation.
Authors: Fabianne M N A Dantas; Marco A V Correia; Almerinda R Silva; Décio M Peixoto; Emanuel S C Sarinho; José A Rizzo Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2014-03-28 Impact factor: 3.295
Authors: Amelia Licari; Giorgio Ciprandi; Gian Luigi Marseglia; Michela Silvestri; Maria Angela Tosca; Elisa Anastasio; Ilaria Brambilla; Carlo Caffarelli; Riccardo Castagnoli; Loredana Chini; Riccardo Ciprandi; Valentina De Vittori; Marzia Duse; Maria Elisa Di Cicco; Luciana Indinnimeo; Ahmad Kantar; Maddalena Leone; Guido Marinelli; Viviana Moschese; Roberta Olcese; Diego G Peroni; Angela Pistorio; Claudia Salmaso; Anna Maria Zicari Journal: Acta Biomed Date: 2020-09-15