Diary keeping in asthma: comparison of written and electronic methods.

Abstract

the normal population of women.8 Though our results need replication, this suggests that our results may be applicable to women attempting to conceive naturally.The authors thank the women who participated in the study and the staff of Bijdorp Laboratories for their invaluable help; S P Verloove-Vanhorick and J J Radder for critically reading the manuscript: C W N Looman for constructive help; M M van der Klaauw, L M Rhodenborgh for support in data handling; and M Huls-van Vliet for secretarial help.

The Effect of Outdoor Fungal Spore Concentrations on Daily Asthma Severity

“…Also, small but significant intercorrelations between aeroallergens and air pollutants were found in the present study ( Outcome misclassification in diary studies is an additional source of error due to a lack of truly verifiable patient data. This can occur through a lack of subject compliance (invalid PEFR maneuvers, falsified records, and distant recall), an issue that has plagued asthma diary studies to the present (39,40). Data quality could be greatly improved by the use of subnotebook diaries, nebulizer chronologs, and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1)/PEFR monitors that are electronic and time-date stamped, but these alternatives are costly.…”

Factors Affecting Drug Compliance in Paediatric Asthma

“…Cochrane et al measured noncompliance by self-reporting, which though easy to do may not be entirely accurate and lead to an infl ated percentage of compliance 8 . Use of standard questionnaires and counting the leftover tablets are other used methods 13,14 In asthmatics use of electronic diary to record their symptom and self-measurement of lung function with a peak fl ow meter at home have also been suggested 15,16 which may again be inaccurate due to clerical entry errors, mistimed entries, and deliberate wrong entries to please the clinician 16,17 . Weighing canisters of inhaler and pill counting is a more objective means of assessment but one can never be sure whether the drug has been actually used by the patient or not 6 .…”

Daily Diaries vs Retrospective Questionnaires to Assess Asthma Control and Therapeutic Responses in Asthma Clinical Trials

“…However, technological advancements in the past decade leading to the development of electronic diaries may both increase patient adherence and decrease the errors and shortcomings associated with paper diaries. [17][18][19][20] However, electronic diaries also have disadvantages, such as cost, operator error, limited user interfaces necessary for data entry and downloading, and equipment reliability. 1,17,21,22 Nonetheless, a joint American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society task force concluded that overall, their many benefi ts outweigh their disadvan tages.…”

“…[17][18][19][20] However, electronic diaries also have disadvantages, such as cost, operator error, limited user interfaces necessary for data entry and downloading, and equipment reliability. 1,17,21,22 Nonetheless, a joint American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society task force concluded that overall, their many benefi ts outweigh their disadvan tages. 23 In conclusion, this analysis demonstrates similarities and differences between daily diaries and retrospective questionnaires used to measure symptoms in asthma clinical trials and indicates that diaries generally should not be used interchangeably with retrospective questionnaires.…”