title: Dalhousie Dyspnea and perceived exertion scales: psychophysical properties in children and adolescents.
abstract: Children and adolescents vary widely in their perception of, or capacity to rate, sensations during exercise using the Borg scale. We sought to measure sensory-perceptual responses obtained using Dalhousie Dyspnea and Perceived Exertion Scales in 79 pediatric subjects during maximal exercise challenge and to determine the psychophysical function relationship(s). Concurrent validity was assessed by canonical plots of mean ratings on either scale, which showed showing very good correlations for perceived leg exertion vs work, and dyspnea vs ventilation. Both scales yielded similar results with respect to goodness of fit regardless of whether data was fitted to a power or quadratic function provided a delay term was included. The quadratic model fixed the exponent of the power law at 2 but, unlike a power model, allowed characterization of individual responses that increased and then plateaued. Dalhousie Dyspnea and Perceived Exertion Scales offer an alternative to Borg scale during exercise in pediatric populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Electronic address: pianosi.paolo@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Paolo T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Pianosi
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Electronic address: huebner@msu.edu.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huebner
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Electronic address: zhang@stt.msu.edu.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4J1. Electronic address: Patrick.McGrath@dal.ca.
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: McGrath
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D005082:Physical Exertion; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods*; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Adolescents; Children; Dyspnea; Exercise; Perceived exertion