title: Blowing the whistle: what do African American adolescents with asthma and their caregivers understand by "wheeze?".
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate what African American adolescents with asthma and their caregivers understand by "wheeze".
  
  
  METHODS
  Caregivers (n = 35) and adolescents (n = 35) were each asked to describe what they understood by "wheeze". Respondents were also shown a video clip of an adolescent wheezing and asked: a) to describe the breathing of the adolescent in the video; and, b) whether the adolescent respondent's breathing had ever been similar to the video-presented symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most caregivers described wheeze in terms of sound alone (61.8%) while the majority of adolescents described wheeze as something that is felt (55.8%). Few caregivers and adolescents (5.8% each) included "whistling" in their descriptions of "wheeze". Most caregivers and adolescents used the word "wheeze" when describing the video clip, but nearly one-quarter of the caregivers and one-third of the adolescents felt that the adolescent's breathing was never similar to the video.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregiver and adolescents descriptions of wheeze are different from each other and both may be different from clinical definitions of the term. Study findings have implications for the ways in which questions about "wheeze" are framed and interpreted.
authors.affiliation: Center for Managing Chronic Disease, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. choule@umich.edu
authors.forename: Christy R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Houle
authors.forename: Cleopatra Howard
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Caldwell
authors.forename: Frederick G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.forename: Terence A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Joiner
authors.forename: Edith A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Noreen M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009626:Terminology as Topic