title: [The language of pediatric asthma patients. A study of symptom description].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Questions on asthma symptoms like "wheezing" or "whistling in the chest" must be easily understood by the general population. In preparation of a standardized German questionnaire we investigated, how children with asthma and their parents would describe symptoms during an asthma attack.
  
  
  METHODS
  From June until December 1991, 72 children aged 13-15 years, and parents of 138 children aged 7-15 years with diagnosed asthma, where interviewed whilst they visited the outpatient department of the universities of Berlin, Leipzig, and Munich. The parents and children were asked to answer a questionnaire which included a list of adjectives and descriptions proposed to describe the child's breathing during an asthma attack. The items included descriptions which have been used on German questionnaires, others which we considered possibly useful, anc control items which we considered inappropriate. Parents and children were asked to rate on scales how much they would agree or disagree to the proposed items as possible descriptors. Descriptive and cluster analyses revealed those descriptions which received the best ratings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rating was rather independent of the sex of the child, the respondent (child vs parent) and the severity of attacks, but differences between regions were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The verbal descriptors with the best rating will be used for the wording of a German questionnaire on asthma symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Epidemiologie und Sozialmedizin, Universität Münster.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Weiland
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kugler
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: von Mutius
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fritzsch
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wahn
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Keil
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000503:physiopathology; D012660:Semantics; D012803:Sick Role; D014939:Work of Breathing / Q000502:physiology
vernacular_title: Die Sprache asthmakranker Kinder. Eine Untersuchung zur Symptombeschreibung.