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A parent-completed respiratory questionnaire for 1-year-old children: repeatability
Marie-Pierre F Strippoli1, Michael Silverman, Gisela Michel
1Swiss Paediatric Respiratory Research Group, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Insights
This study developed a postal questionnaire for assessing respiratory symptoms in 1-year-old children. The questionnaire showed good repeatability for wheeze symptoms, making it valuable for community-based research.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric respiratory health
- Epidemiological research methods
- Questionnaire development and validation
Background:
- Standardized questionnaires for assessing respiratory symptoms in preschool children are scarce.
- A novel postal questionnaire was developed to evaluate respiratory symptoms in 1-year-old children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and assess the short-term repeatability of a new postal questionnaire for respiratory symptoms in 1-year-old children.
- To evaluate the instrument's suitability for population-based studies.
Main Methods:
- A population-based random sample of 4300 children aged 12-24 months received the questionnaire.
- Repeatability was assessed by re-administering the questionnaire to a subset of 800 children after 3 months.
- Cohen's kappa statistic was used to measure agreement between responses.
Main Results:
- Response rates were 74% for the initial survey and 58% for the repeat survey.
- Excellent repeatability (kappa 0.80-0.96) was observed for household characteristics, environmental exposures, and family history.
- Good repeatability (kappa 0.61-0.80) was found for wheeze prevalence, severity, and treatment, while moderate repeatability (kappa 0.39-0.66) was noted for chronic cough and upper respiratory symptoms.
Conclusions:
- The developed postal questionnaire demonstrates excellent repeatability for demographic and exposure data, and good repeatability for wheeze-related symptoms.
- Variability in responses for chronic cough and upper respiratory symptoms may be due to short-term symptom fluctuations.
- The questionnaire is a valuable tool for community-based research on respiratory health in young children.
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 (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 (kappa 0.80-0.96) for questions on household characteristics, environmental exposures and family history, good (kappa 0.61-0.80) for questions on prevalence, severity and treatment of wheeze, and moderate (kappa 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.
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