Patient questionnaires in primary health care. Validation of items used in asthma care.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate each item in a patient questionnaire for the purpose of investigating whether the validity of each item is acceptable.


METHODS
The questionnaire was completed by the patients at an ordinary follow-up visit for their asthma, and within 1 week a nurse interviewed them by telephone with the aim of analysing the validity of each item through the use of predetermined criteria.


METHODS
Patients with asthma in primary health care settings in Sweden.


METHODS
Fifty-one patients were consecutively included from three different primary health care units.


RESULTS
Nine of 13 items had an acceptable validity. The four items that were not found to have acceptable validity were developed further.


CONCLUSIONS
Evaluating each item in a questionnaire by means of interviews with the specific patient population is a useful method of assuring that the intention of the patient questionnaire has been met.
Lindberg
M
M
Department of Medicine and Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköpings University, Sweden. Malou.Lindberg@lio.se
Ahlner
J
J
Ekström
T
T
Möller
M
M
D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013548:Sweden