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Validation of the Brief Pediatric Asthma Screen^*

^* From La Rabida Children's Hospital and Research Center (Drs. Wolf and Berry, Ms. O'Connor, and Ms. Coover), Chicago, IL; University of Chicago (Dr. Wolf), Chicago, IL; and Northwestern University (Dr. Berry), Chicago, IL.

Correspondence to: Raoul L. Wolf, MD, FCCP, La Rabida Children's Hospital and Research Center, E 65th St at Lake Michigan, Chicago, IL 60649; e-mail: rlwolf{at}midway.uchicago.edu

Study objectives: The purpose of this study was to confirm the validity of a brief screen for pediatric asthma in schools.

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, yet the frequency with which this condition is recognized among school-aged children varies widely. Several methods are used to increase the accuracy of detection of asthma, but many are cumbersome and difficult to apply on a large scale.

Design: We elected to validate a five-question instrument, the Brief Pediatric Asthma Screen (BPAS), to screen for the presence of asthma among children attending school in Region 5 of the Chicago school district, where the schools report a 2.7% frequency of asthma. The questionnaire was distributed to the parents of grade-school children at the time of report-card pick-up.

Setting: A clinical assessment was performed on a selected group of children whose parents completed the questionnaire in a school and in a hospital outpatient clinic.

Participants: Of 4,147 questionnaires that we distributed, 1,796 (43%) were returned. We excluded 341 children (19% of the total sample) whose parents reported that they had been diagnosed with asthma. The remaining pool indicated that the children of 183 responders (10%) had symptoms suggestive of asthma, while 1,272 parents (71%) indicated that their children did not have symptoms of asthma.

Measurements and results: We selected 90 of the respondents who did not indicate that their children had a diagnosis of asthma. Of this group, 81 completed the validation, in which their responses suggested symptoms of asthma (n = 34) or no asthma symptoms (n = 47). The children of these respondents were given a blinded clinical evaluation consisting of history, physical examination, and spirometry. The survey demonstrated a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 81.2% for the presence of asthma among those who were unaware of the diagnosis.

Conclusions: The BPAS is brief, can be filled out by parents, and appears accurate in detecting asthma.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. N. Homnick and S. R. DeJong Parent-Reported Physician Diagnosis Is an Important Factor in Asthma Management: An Elementary School Survey Clinical Pediatrics, June 1, 2007; 46(5): 431 - 436. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Coover, C. Vega, V. Persky, E. Russell, R. Blase, R. Wolf, M. Garcia, E. Grant, and M. Dublin A Collaborative Model to Enhance the Functioning of the School Child With Asthma Chest, October 1, 1999; 116(suppl_2): 193S - 195S. [Full Text] [PDF]