ArticleERJ open research2020
Defining asthma in children: how well do parents, doctors and spirometry agree?
Article in ERJ open research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Maternal asthma during pregnancy and risks of allergy and asthma in progeny: A systematic review and meta-analysis.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Pooled it
- Discordance Between Clinical Suspicion and Spirometry-Defined Reversible Airflow Obstruction in Children with Sickle Cell Disease in French Guiana.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- The Clinical Registry of Childhood Asthma (CRCA) Elucidating Early-Life Asthma: Cross-Sectional Analysis of a Prospective, Longitudinal, and Digitally Enhanced Real-World Cohort.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Agreement between parent reported and clinical coding of asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis: The multi-ethnic Born in Bradford cohort.Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · 2025Article
- Childhood Asthma in Saudi Arabia: Insights from a Meta-Analysis on Its Prevalence.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Caregiver Perceptions of Change in Pediatric Asthma Control During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2022Article
- Predictors of the Development of Protracted Bacterial Bronchitis following Presentation to Healthcare for an Acute Respiratory Illness with Cough: Analysis of Three Cohort Studies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBecause diagnosing asthma in school-aged children is challenging, a variety of proxies for asthma are used in clinical practice and research settings as indicators of this disease. We aimed to provide insight into the agreement between various asthma indicators based on parental report, medical diagnosis and spirometry.
methodsChildren from the WHISTLER birth cohort performed spirometry and were followed up with parental ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) questionnaires about asthma at 5 and 8 years of age. Medical data were extracted from primary care records. We compared 15 asthma indicators based on parental report, medical diagnosis and spirometry using positive agreement, κ statistics and latent class cluster analysis.
resultsAt 5 years of age, 1007 children completed a study visit, while 803 children visited at 8 years of age. Depending on the indicator, the responder and child's age, the asthma prevalence ranged from 0.2% to 26.6%. Cluster analysis revealed classes related to the presence of recent symptoms and a decreased lung function. Agreement between parents and doctors was generally low with κ coefficients ranging from 0.07 (recent wheeze) to 0.52 (recent asthma medication). Additionally, parental report showed to be sensitive to recall bias over time.
conclusionsDependent on the asthma indicator, the responder and the age of the child, substantial differences in agreement were observed between commonly used indicators associated with asthmatic disease in school-aged children. Most agreement between parents and doctors was seen for objective and recent indicators such as the recent use of asthma medication. We advocate caution when literature with different asthma indicators is compared.
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Registered trials
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