Screening for occupational asthma by using a self-administered questionnaire in a clinical setting

Area of Science:

• Occupational health
• Pulmonology
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Occupational asthma (OA) is prevalent, necessitating early detection.
• Effective screening tools are crucial for timely diagnosis and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the screening performance of the Occupational Asthma Screening Questionnaire-11 items (OASQ-11) in a clinical setting.
• To evaluate the discriminative ability of the OASQ-11 for identifying occupational asthma.

Main Methods:

• 169 workers with suspected OA completed the OASQ-11 and underwent diagnostic workups.
• Discriminative ability was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).
• The OASQ-11's performance was evaluated independently and with demographic/exposure parameters.

Main Results:

• The OASQ-11 alone demonstrated fair discrimination (AUC, 0.69).
• Incorporating age and exposure duration significantly improved discrimination (AUC, 0.80).
• The combined model showed enhanced accuracy in identifying OA.

Conclusions:

• A simplified model using OASQ-11 items, age, and exposure duration effectively discriminates individuals with OA.
• This model is suitable for clinical application in occupational asthma screening.
• Early identification of OA can be achieved through this validated screening approach.