ISAAC written questionnaire versus incorporating videos before the questionnaire for asthma prevalence among middle schools students in Al-Sharkiya Egyptian Governorate

Osama T Amer,Marwa Gad,Ahmed Fawzy,Sameh A Elsayed,Dina T Sarhan,Eman Mokhtar,Hala Yaseen,Hussnia M Ragab,Salwa Hegazy,Shereen M Bahgat

doi:10.1186/s43054-020-00026-y

Abstract

BackgroundAsthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder in childhood with worldwide increasing in its prevalence and global burden. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) provides a standardized methodology to describe the prevalence and severity of childhood asthma symptoms all over the world using simple standardized questionnaires that allow comparisons across geographic and linguistic boundaries. This study aimed to find a suitable application of ISAAC asthma questionnaire to improve the perception and response of the middle (preparatory) school students in Al-Sharkiya Governorate as a step to update the Egyptian prevalence of asthma among children through the translation of the ISSAC written questionnaire into Arabic and to compare the student’s response to the translated questionnaire with their response to the same questionnaire after showing ISAAC videos.ResultsThe percentage of student’s positive answers for asthma symptoms in the written questionnaire after watching ISAAC videos was significantly lower when compared to their written questionnaire answers without watching videos with no significant agreement between the student’s answers in the two methods.ConclusionUsing ISAAC videos before filling the written questionnaire improved the students’ understanding of and dealing with the written questionnaire.

Highlights

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder in childhood with worldwide increasing in its prevalence and global burden
The aim of the current study was to translate ISSAC written questionnaire into Arabic and to find a suitable method of application of ISAAC asthma questionnaire to improve the perception and response of the middle school students in Al-Sharkiya Governorate as a step to update the Egyptian prevalence of asthma among children
We conducted the study at hand on 175 students who were randomly selected from 6 middle schools in El-Sharkiya Governorate during March–April 2018, and we considered it as a pilot study to select the more suitable method to be applied on larger samples representing all the governorates

Summary

Introduction

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder in childhood with worldwide increasing in its prevalence and global burden. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) provides a standardized methodology to describe the prevalence and severity of childhood asthma symptoms all over the world using simple standardized questionnaires that allow comparisons across geographic and linguistic boundaries. This study aimed to find a suitable application of ISAAC asthma questionnaire to improve the perception and response of the middle (preparatory) school students in Al-Sharkiya Governorate as a step to update the Egyptian prevalence of asthma among children through the translation of the ISSAC written questionnaire into Arabic and to compare the student’s response to the translated questionnaire with their response to the same questionnaire after showing ISAAC videos. Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder in childhood worldwide. Despite a large volume of clinical and epidemiological research within affected populations, the etiology and risk factors of these conditions remain somewhat not well understood [3]

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Conclusion