Development of a nomogram for identification of asthma among adults in epidemiologic studies

Abstract

IntroductionAsthma is a serious health problem with increased prevalence and incidence over recent decades in both children and adults. Identification of study subjects likely to have asthma is a key step in asthma investigations. Epidemiologic investigations have utilized questionnaires to determine asthma prevalence. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Currently there is no universally accepted standard definition of asthma for case identification in adult studies of asthma. It is essential to develop predictive models to identify asthma among adult populations. Dr. Deng and Ms Gebretsadik contributed to conception of the study, analysis and interpretation of the data and preparation of the manuscript. Drs Jin, Gao, Bai and Wen contributed data generation and critical review of the manuscript. Drs. Bai, Jin and Christman were involved in the methacholine challenge testing and interpretation, and critically reviewed the manuscript. Dr. Dupont, Mr. Plummer and Mr. Stephens contributed to analysis and interpretation of the data, development of the web-based interface, and preparation of the manuscript. Dr. Shu contributed to the generation of the data and critical review of the manuscript. Dr. Hartert contributed to the conception and design and all aspects of manuscript preparation, and is the principal investigator of the grant that supports this project.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAnn Allergy Asthma Immunol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 September 1. Methacholine challenge testing (MCT) and/or test of reversibility to short-acting beta-agonists are objective measurements used to assess bronchial hyperresponsiveness. However, there are practical limitations to performing this testing since it is costly, labor-intensive and timeconsuming, and there can be variability in results secondary to environmental and treatment factors. 14 Because of the expense, difficulty associated with this physiological testing, and questions regarding whether MCT should even represent a gold standard, questionnaires remain the principal instrument used to identify asthma in large population based epidemiologic studies.While most previous published studies have focused on the association of individual asthma related variables with the occurrence of asthma in adults, Pekkanen and colleagues have suggested that the sum of positive answers to asthma symptom questions as a continuous score is better than individual symptoms for studying the etiology of asthma. 15 The objective of the present study was to develop a scoring system to serve as an effic...

Prognostic nomogram for inpatients with asthma exacerbation

“…Nomograms are widely used as the prognostic devices in oncology [ 16 , 17 ]. In respiratory medicine, nomograms have been used to predict survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer [ 33 ] or probability of asthma diagnosis [ 34 ]; however, we are the first to build a nomogram that predicts in-hospital mortality in patients with asthma exacerbation. Previous studies that have identified the risk factors associated with death in patients with asthma fail to identify the means of predicting the probability of death in individual patients.…”

Development of a nomogram to estimate the quality of life in asthmatic children using the Childhood Asthma Control Test

“…It could be more easily applied than a more time‐consuming PAQLQ in a field investigation and also in clinical practice. Although several algorithms for asthma diagnosis and for predicted PEFR have been previously developed, our PACQoL nomogram could improve the overall clinical assessment of asthma control by physicians, responding to the need of guidelines recommendation.…”

“…It could be more easily applied than a more time-consuming PAQLQ in a field investigation and also in clinical practice. Although several algorithms for asthma diagnosis (30) and for predicted PEFR (13) have been Beside the advantage of the nomogram derivation, several potential limitations need to be considered in this study. First, variables were obtained from children aged between 5 and 11 years; therefore, the nomogram may not be generalizable to older individuals and requires validation in other groups of asthmatic children.…”

A dynamic nomogram for predicting the risk of asthma: Development and validation in a database study

“…Although previous studies have developed several prediction models for the diagnosis of asthma, 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 we established an online nomogram which is more convenient for clinicians to evaluate the individual probability of asthma attack. Clinicians could access the website directly through their computer or phone, and input the information of patients to predict the risk of asthma attack, which would greatly facilitate the clinical use.…”