Asthma in Iranian Schoolchildren: Comparison of ISAAC Video and Written Questionnaires

Background: the international study of asthma and allergiesin childhood (isaac) is used to define the prevalence andseverity of asthma in different regions, in this study wefollowed the performance of the isaac video and writtenquestionnaires (yq and wq) to classify asthma in 13-14yr-old schoolchildren,methods: the present study was carried out on 3540schoolchildren 13 to 14-yrs-old using the yq and wq. thestudents were also asked to answer a separate question if theyhad ever been clinically diagnosed as asthmatic. the kappaindex was used to find degree of agreement between yq andwq regarding asthma symptoms. the sensitivity, specificityand youdeu's index of both questionnaires were also determined.results: the most frequent asthma symptom was wheeze afterexercise in both yq (15%) and wq (23%). correlationsbetween positive responses to the corresponding questions inthe yq and wq were significant (p(less than)o.oo i). the sensitivity ofboth questionnaires to the question of asthma diagnosis byphysician ranged between 0.16 and 0.68. except for wheezelimiting speech and current wheeze, the wq had higher valueof youdens index (0.25 - 0.46). the specificity of questionsin yq for asthma diagnosis by physician was ranged between0.84 and 0.99.conclusion: both wq and yq had low sensitivity, but wqshowed higher value of youdens index and the yq exhibitedgood specificity. therefore, one may consider the wq forprevalence and yq for relative risk studies.