Associations between an asthma morbidity index and ideas of fright and bother in a community population

There is a need for simple asthma outcome measures for primary care which a re not only valid in terms of their relationship with lung function but als o in terms of pragmatic psychological constructs. This study assesses the u sefulness of adding items on the degree of 'bother' and "fright' caused by the condition to a previously validated simple asthma morbidity index. A postal questionnaire survey comprising a simple asthma morbidity index an d questions on 'fright' and 'bother' was conducted in one general practice in the north-east of England. Responses were obtained from 570 individuals. Of these, 184 (32%) reported low, 133 (23%) medium and 253 (44%) high morbidity. Twenty-nine per cent of respondents had felt frightened by their asthma in the previous 4 weeks. B oth the 'fright' and 'bother' items were significantly associated with the morbidity index. The addition of 'bother' and/or 'fright' questions may improve both the con tent, construct and predictive validity of the morbidity index, but this ne eds to be established prospectively.