VALIDATION OF THE ISAAC WRITTEN QUESTIONNAIRE
FOR ESTIMATING ASTHMA ASSOCIATED BRONCHIAL HYPERRESPONSIVENESS IN CHINESE
CHILDREN
Wan H1, Wong GWK1, Hui DSC2,
Fok TF1, Zhong NS3, Chen YZ4, Lai CKW2
Departments of 1 Paediatrics and 2 Medicine and
Therapeutics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong 3 Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou 4 Clinical
and Education Center for Asthma, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing,
China
Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the ISAAC
written questionnaire in predicting bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) in
Chinese schoolchildren.
Methods:
Six hundred and eight children recruited for the ISAAC phase II
study from three cities: Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangzhou underwent
methacholine challenge test.
BHR was defined as having a provocative dose of inhaled methacholine
causing a 20% fall in baseline FEV1 of 7.8 mmol.
Results:
A total of 285 children with wheeze in the past 12 months and 323
without wheeze were recruited.
203 (33.4%) were found to have BHR. A positive response to the question “Has your child had
wheezing in the chest in the last 12 months?” has sensitivity of 0.82 and
specificity of 0.71 in predicting BHR. The sensitivity and specificity for predicting BHR in
children from any individual city were not significantly different from
those of the combined group.
Conclusion:
The ISAAC written questionnaire is a simple and effective tool for
predicting BHR and comparing asthma prevalence among Chinese children.