Scale for assessing functional impairment in adults with asthma

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Health Outcomes Research
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Accurate outcome measures are crucial for asthma research, particularly for functional status and quality of life.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the daily impact of asthma on patients' lives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Functional Impairment Scale.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the UAB Scale for measuring asthma's impact on daily living.

Main Methods:

• The UAB Functional Impairment Scale, comprising eight items, was administered to two distinct patient samples.
• Psychometric properties, including reliability (coefficient alpha) and construct validity (correlations with other measures), were evaluated.

Main Results:

• High internal consistency was demonstrated with coefficient alpha values of .83 and .84 in both samples.
• Item-total correlations confirmed that all items measure the same underlying construct of functional impairment.
• Score distributions indicated sufficient range and variation to detect differences in functional impairment among individuals.
• Correlations with other asthma-related measures supported the construct validity of the UAB Scale.

Conclusions:

• The UAB Functional Impairment Scale exhibits strong psychometric properties, including high reliability and validity.
• The scale effectively assesses the impact of asthma on various aspects of daily living.
• The UAB Scale is a potentially valuable tool for improving outcome measurement in asthma research.