Abstract
Within an epidemiological survey on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, before reporting data on the prevalence of bronchial asthma we checked the group of subjects defined as ≪ pathological ≫ by means of a suitable questionnaire and a group of ≪ normals ≫ as a control.
We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire, in comparison with a clinical evaluation made by two physicians and controlled the relationship among their results, non-specific bronchial hyperreactivity and skin tests. In particular the correspondence between diagnosis made by physicians from a clinical evaluation and that obtained by questionnaire was not satisfactory.
We suggest the importance of employing physicians for an epidemiological approach to asthma, in absence of a valid objective criterion.
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Cerveri, I., Bruschi, C., Ricciardi, M. et al. Epidemiological diagnosis of asthma: Methodological considerations of prevalence evaluation. Eur J Epidemiol 3, 202–205 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00239760
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00239760