title: Comparing questionnaires for the assessment of acute mountain sickness.
abstract: Exposure to high altitude in nonacclimatized subjects may lead to acute mountain sickness (AMS). AMS is a syndrome characterized by headache accompanied by one or more other symptoms, such as light-headedness, dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, lassitude, and trouble sleeping. Assessing the presence and degree of AMS can be done using self-administered questionnaires like the Lake Louise Questionnaire (LLQ) and the Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire-III (ESQ-III). We compared LLQ and ESQ-III in 266 trekkers of different nationalities trekking over a 5400-m-high pass to assess if the two questionnaires identify the same population as suffering from AMS and to see whether using English questionnaires poses problems for nonnative English-speaking persons. The use of English questionnaires by nonnative English speakers influenced the outcome for some nationalities. For criterion scores yielding similar prevalence of AMS, ESQ-III labeled 20% of cases differently (AMS or no AMS) when compared to LLQ. Correlations between similar individual questions of ESQ-III and LLQ were variable, and there was considerable scatter between ESQ-III and LLQ scores. In conclusion, English questionnaires may pose problems in some international settings, and ESQ-III and LLQ may identify different populations as suffering from AMS.
authors.affiliation: Département de médecine communautaire, Hôpitaux universitaires, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dellasanta
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gaillard
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Loutan
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kayser
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009051:Mountaineering; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000145:classification*