Assessment of Asthma Severity in Adults with Asthma Treated by Family Practitioners, Allergists, and Pulmonologists

Details

• Personal Author:
  Blanc PD ; Eisner MD ; Henke J ; Katz PP ; Smith S ; Yelin EH
• Description:
  Accurate measurement of asthma severity is critical for research evaluating asthma health outcomes. There are, however, no widely accepted asthma severity measures. A severity-of-asthma score, which is based on self-reported information, was previously developed and validated in subjects recruited from pulmonary and allergy subspecialty practices. The purpose of this study was to validate the severity-of-asthma score in subjects treated by family practice physicians and to compare asthma severity in subjects treated by family practitioners (n = 150) with those seen by allergists (n = 217) and pulmonologists (n = 384). The study was an ongoing panel study of adults with asthma. Subjects were a random sample of board-certified family practice, allergy, and pulmonary physicians. Each physician registered patients with asthma aged 18 to 50 years. Of 869 subjects registered, 751 (86%) completed structured telephone interviews. The family practice panel was recruited approximately 3 years after the subspecialty panel. In the family practice subjects, the severity-of-asthma score demonstrated internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.76) and concurrent validity, correlating strongly with asthma-specific quality of life, SF-36 General Health and Physical Functioning scales, and subject-perceived asthma severity. After controlling for demographic characteristics, a 5-point score increment was associated with increased emergency department visits, urgent physician visits, and restricted activity days. The mean severity score was highest in the pulmonary group (11.8 +/- 6.3), followed by the allergy (10.3 +/- 5.3) and family practice (9.3 +/- 5.5) groups. The severity-of-asthma score was a valid measure in generalist-treated subjects. Asthma severity varied significantly by physician specialty. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Asthma Asthma, Occupational Demography Health Personnel Hypersensitivity Immune System Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety

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• Keywords:
  Age-factors Allergies Allergy And Immunology Author Keywords: Asthma Bronchial-asthma Demographic-characteristics Diseases Family Practice Health-care-personnel Immunology Medical-personnel Physicians Pulmonary-system-disorders Pulmonary Disease Risk-analysis Risk-factors Severity-of-illness Index

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• ISSN:
  0025-7079
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  36
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030544
• Citation:
  Med Care 1998 Nov; 36(11):1567-1577
• Contact Point Address:
  Paul D. Blanc, MD, MSPH, 350 Parnassus Avenue, Suite 609, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0924
• Email:
  blancp@itsa.ucsf.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Social and Economic Consequences
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Cardiovascular Research Institute, San Francisco, California
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19970930
• Source Full Name:
  Medical Care
• End Date:
  20010929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:04f4f6b4a06c501762d62f3440466924947b4d747cb053fea3c0ade64d3ed7165f76e10ac68a865c06565b4c63de415cef81c2358fec3a65fff795c4a3ae2171
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191113/cdc_191113_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 854.80 KB ]