Test-Retest Reliability Of The ISAAC Questionnaire For a Web-Based Study

FEBRUARY 2014 AB6 Abstracts S A T U R D A Y 19 Test-Retest Reliability Of The ISAAC Questionnaire For a WebBased Study Dr. Koichi Yoshida, MD, Dr. Yuichi Adachi, MD, PhD, Dr. Mari Sasaki, MD, Dr. Mayumi Furukawa, MD, Dr. Toshiko Itazawa, MD, PhD, Dr. Koji Hashimoto, MD, PhD, Dr. Hiroshi Odajima, Dr. Akira Akasawa, MD, PhD; Division of Allergy, Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan, Department of Pediatrics, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, Fukuoka National Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan. RATIONALE: The reliability of a web-based questionnaire for evaluating the prevalence of allergic diseases in children is unknown. The aim of our study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the International Study of Asthma andAllergies inChildhood (ISAAC) questionnaire for aweb survey. METHODS: We asked 150 parents and their 200 children aged 6 to12 years to complete the web-based ISAAC questionnaire via the internet twice, with a one month interval. Reliability was assessed using the proportion of agreement and the kappa coefficient. The study protocol was approved by the independent review board of the Tokyo Metropolitan Children’s Medical Center. RESULTS: A total of 184 children (93 boys and 91 girls, mean age 8.8 6 1.8 years) were analyzed. The proportion of agreement for the question on asthma and nose/eye symptoms was more than 90%, whereas that for the questions on eczemawas less than 90%. The kappa coefficients for the questions on current symptoms of wheeze, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema were 0.63, 0.64, and 0.55, respectively. The kappa coefficients for the questions on asthma ever, pollinosis ever and eczema ever were 0.80, 0.78 and 0.48, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Theweb-based ISAAC questionnairewas as reliable for the epidemiological survey.The reliability for the questions on eczema tended to be lower than that for the questions on other allergic diseases. Further studies are needed to create web-based questionnaires using multimedia, which would lead to further improvement in the reliability of questionnaires.