Development and validation of the Adolescent Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AAQOL)

Current asthma-specific quality of life questionnaires have major conceptua l and methodological deficiencies for use in adolescents. The aim of this s tudy was to develop and validate the "Adolescent Asthma Quality of Life Que stionnaire (AAQOL)", specifically developed for adolescents with asthma. One-hundred and eleven adolescents with frequent-episodic or persistent ast hma aged 12-17 yrs were recruited from three tertiary paediatric asthma cli nics. The standardized multi-step method consisted of: 1) item selection in cluding semistructured interviews (n=14); 2) item reduction and validation (n=66); and 3) assessment of reproducibility (n=31). Item reduction was per formed applying the clinical impact method. The 32 item AAQOL covers six domains: symptoms, medication, physical activi ties, emotion, social interaction and positive effects. There was high inte rnal consistency for the six domains (alpha =0.70-0.90) and for the total s core (alpha =0.93). Test-retest reliability was high for all domain scores (r=0.76-0.85) and the total score (r=0.90), indicating high reproducibility of the AAQOL. There was high correlation with the paediatric Asthma Qualit y of Life Questionnaire (rho =0.81) which focuses primarily on symptoms and emotional well-being. There mas weak to moderate correlation with clinical parameters of asthma severity (rho =0.25-0.65). The 32-item Adolescent Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire is a valid, dev elopmentally age-appropriate and dimensionally comprehensive asthma-specifi c quality of life measure for use in adolescents.