Evaluation of an asthma severity score.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate inter-observer agreement and validity of an asthma severity score derived from wheeze, heart rate and accessory muscle use components.


METHODS
Children with acute asthma were examined independently and simultaneously by two observers, followed by pulse oximetry and spirometry in those over 5 years with repeatable measurements.


RESULTS
Inter-observer agreement was very good (weighted kappa 0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.63 to 1.00), the component with the best agreement being the accessory muscle score (0.76, 0.57 to 0.95). The score correlated significantly with oxygen saturation, heart rate, and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). In a multivariate model, FEV1 was best related to accessory muscle use.


CONCLUSIONS
The asthma severity score has very good inter-observer agreement with a moderate relationship to oxygenation and FEV1.
Yung
M
M
Department of Paediatrics, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
South
M
M
Byrt
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013147:Spirometry