Related Experiment Videos
Measuring morbidity in adult asthmatics
1Department of Medicine, Wellington School of Medicine, New Zealand. neil@wnmeds.ac.nz
Summary
Measuring asthma morbidity in adults requires careful selection of methods. Symptoms and quality of life measures are key, but physiological tests like bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) may be impractical for adult asthma studies.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonary Medicine
- Clinical Epidemiology
Background:
- Asthma morbidity studies focus on factors affecting severity within asthmatic populations, unlike general population prevalence studies.
- Selecting appropriate methods is crucial for accurately assessing asthma morbidity in adults.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review and assess the appropriateness of various morbidity measurement methods for adult asthmatics.
- To evaluate the suitability of these methods across different research contexts.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing methodologies for measuring asthma morbidity.
- Assessment of symptom reporting, physiological measures (e.g., peak flow, bronchial hyper-responsiveness), health service utilization, medication use, and quality of life measures.
Main Results:
- Symptom assessment is fundamental for asthma morbidity studies.
- Physiological measures like peak flow can supplement symptom data, but bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) testing is often impractical and lacks a direct correlation with current asthma severity.
- Health service and medication usage may be inappropriate indicators in certain study designs. Quality of life measures offer a valuable complement to objective data.
Conclusions:
- The choice of methodology for measuring adult asthma morbidity must be context-dependent.
- Methods appropriate for one study setting may be unsuitable for another, emphasizing the need for careful methodological selection.