Validation of the patient-completed asthma knowledge questionnaire (PAKQ)

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Health Education
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Suboptimal asthma control is often linked to insufficient patient knowledge.
• Personalized education requires understanding patient knowledge gaps before intervention.
• Existing asthma knowledge questionnaires lack international validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Translate and validate the "Questionnaire de connaissances sur l'asthme destiné aux patients adultes" (QCA-PA) into the "Patient-completed Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire" (PAKQ).
• Ensure the PAKQ aligns with Global Initiative for Asthma recommendations for asthma knowledge and self-management.
• Provide a reliable tool for assessing adult asthma patient knowledge.

Main Methods:

• Back-translation and expert review of the QCA-PA using Vallerand's methodology.
• Pretesting with 20 asthma patients, followed by recruitment of 62 adults for validation.
• Assessing concurrent validity with the Consumer Questionnaire (CQ), reproducibility, and responsiveness through repeated measures and educational intervention.

Main Results:

• The PAKQ demonstrated good internal consistency (KR-20 = 0.77).
• Moderate correlation with the CQ (r = 0.596, p = 0.01) confirmed concurrent validity.
• The questionnaire showed acceptable reproducibility and significant responsiveness to educational intervention.

Conclusions:

• The Patient-completed Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (PAKQ) is a valid and reliable instrument.
• The PAKQ is based on international asthma guidelines, supporting personalized patient education.
• This validated questionnaire can assist healthcare professionals in tailoring asthma education for improved patient outcomes.