INTEGRATING PATIENT PREFERENCES INTO HEALTH OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT - THEMULTIATTRIBUTE ASTHMA SYMPTOM UTILITY INDEX

Study objective: To develop and evaluate a brief, easy-to-administer s ymptom assessment scale for use as a preference-based outcome measure in clinical trials and cost-effectiveness studies in asthma, Design: C ross-sectional survey with 2-week reproducibility assessment. Setting: Ambulatory care: university asthma and allergy center. Participants: One hundred sixty-one adults with asthma, 59% female, mean age 35 +/- 11 years. Mean FEV1 percent predicted was 86 +/- 17%, Interventions: T he 11-item Asthma Symptom Utility Index (ASUI), Measurements and resul ts: Mean ASUI score for this sample was 0.71 +/- 0.23, with a range fr om 0.02 to 1.0, The ASUI was reproducible (intraclass correlation coef ficient = 0.74) and able to distinguish patients known to differ on di sease severity according to clinician ratings (p < 0.001) and by an as thma disease severity scale score (p < 0.001). The instrument was also significantly correlated with FEV, percent predicted (r = 0.27, p < 0 .001), the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (r = 0.77, p < 0.001), and the Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (r = 0.36, p < 0.001). Conclusi on: The results of this study support the reliability and validity of the ASUI, suggesting it will be a useful, complementary patient outcom e measure for clinical trials and cost-effectiveness studies comparing treatment alternatives for persons with asthma.