The Reliability and Validity of Turkish Version of the School-based Asthma and Allergy Screening Questionnaires
Abstract The reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the school-based asthma and allergy screening questionnaireBackground: Asthma is an important public health problem affecting children, causing school absenteeism and hospitalization. The aim of this study is to assess the validity and reliability for diagnostic accuracy of the Turkish version of the asthma and allergy screening questionnaire.Methods: This study included primary and secondary school students from grades 2 to 7, and their parents or caregivers. For validity, 40 children with asthma and 39 children with allergy diagnosed by the questionnaire were used to determine the sensitivity, and specificity was calculated by using the data of 100 children without asthma and allergies. For reliability, the Spearman correlation was used for dependent groups, for validity, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used. Results: When the questionnaire cut-off point was 2/3 for asthma, according to the student and parent form, the sensitivity was 80.0% and 82.5%, and the specificity was 56.6% and 76.8%, respectively. When the questionnaire cut-off point was 0/1 for allergies, according to the student and parent questionnaire, the sensitivity was 74.4% and 84.6%, and the specificity was 66.3% and 54.2%, respectively. The reliability of the asthma and allergy questionnaires test-retest correlation values (≥0.68) of both questionnaires were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: According to the Turkish questionnaire of the students and their parents, questionnaire sensitivity for asthma and allergy was similar in proportion to the original questionnaire. The Turkish version of the questionnaire can be used for asthma and allergy screening in schools.