title: [Validation of ECRHS Questionnaire in Japanese to use for nation-wide prevalence study of adult asthma].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To enable international comparison of prevalence in asthma, we translated and evaluated ECRHS Questionnaire, which is introduced in GINA. Considering COPD prevalence in elder people, we added two questions to the ECRHS Questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Japanese edition of ECRHS Questionnaire was responded by 366 patients who were diagnosed asthma without COPD, 61 patients who were diagnosed COPD without asthma, and 137 healthy persons who were not diagnosed asthma or COPD. We analyzed the answers of the each group and evaluated the validity of the questionnaire to use for the nation-wide prevalence study of adult asthma in future.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The question of 'Wheezing at any time in the last 12 months' had the highest Youden's index and validity to pick up asthma patients. The questions of 'Waking up with a feeling of tightness in chest at any time in the last 12 months' and 'Waking up by an attack of shortness of breath at any time in the last 12 month' had the highest specificity to pick up asthma patients. Most of the questions which were related asthma were able to be answered by asthma patients properly, but some questions were improperly answered by patients and healthy persons in elderly. The results in this study showed the less recognition of their diseases in elderly patients than younger patients and the limitation of the study with written questionnaire for elderly people. Not a few COPD patients complained wheezing or whistling in the chests as same as asthma patients in this study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that we had almost enough reliability in the Japanese edition of the ECRHS questionnaire for screening survey of asthma prevalence in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Center for Allergy and Rheumatology, National Hospital Organization Sagamihara National Hospital. j-watanabe@sagamihara-hosp.gr.jp
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Masami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Takemasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Yukihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ooya
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akazawa
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Akiyama
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003625:Data Collection; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence