Differences in parental- and self-report of asthma, rhinitis and eczema among Italian adolescents

Epidemiological and clinical information on respiratory and allergic disord ers in adolescents has been collected from the adolescents themselves or fr om their parents, but little is known about the differences between these t wo sources of information. This study compared the responses to 10 identically worded questions from t he International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questio nnaire on asthma, rhinitis and eczema between written self and parent-compl eted questionnaires in a large sample of 21,068 adolescent Italians aged 13 -14 yrs, The effects of sex, latitude of residence, urbanization, socioecon omic status, previous diagnosis of asthma, family history of allergic disea ses and adolescent's smoking habits on the prevalence estimates obtained,vi th the two questionnaires were analysed using multiple logistic regression. Prevalence of self-reported symptoms was significantly higher in self-repor ted for all questions except for lifetime eczema, which was higher in paren tal report, Agreement between the two sources of information was poor, alth ough it was slightly better for questions relative to clinical diagnosis of asthma, hay fever or eczema than for related symptoms, and for respiratory with respect to cutaneous disorders. When compared,vith self-reported, par ent-reported was consistently higher in males and was more affected by soci oeconomic level and by a diagnosis of asthma or family history of allergic diseases, whereas self-reported was more sensitive to the effect of the ado lescent's smoking habits, It is concluded that, in adolescents, parent- and self-reported respiratory and allergic symptoms differ significantly and are differently affected by several constitutional and environmental factors. Obtaining direct informa tion from adolescents may be essential for a correct evaluation of respirat ory symptoms.