title: Measurement properties of asthma-specific quality-of-life measures: protocol for a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Asthma is a frequent chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, and the assessment of health-related quality of life (HrQoL) is important in both research and routine care. Various asthma-specific measures of HrQoL exist but there is uncertainty which measures are best suited for use in research and routine care. Therefore, the aim of the proposed research is a comprehensive systematic assessment of the measurement properties of the existing measures that were developed to measure asthma-specific quality of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a systematic review of the measurement properties of asthma-specific measures of health-related quality of life. PubMed and Embase will be searched using a selection of relevant search terms. Eligible studies will be primary empirical studies evaluating, describing or comparing measurement properties of asthma-specific HRQL tools. Eligibility assessment and data abstraction will be performed independently by two reviewers. Evidence tables will be generated for study characteristics, instrument characteristics, measurement properties and interpretability. The quality of the measurement properties will be assessed using predefined criteria. Methodological quality of studies will be assessed using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. A best evidence synthesis will be undertaken if more than one study have investigated a particular measurement property.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed systematic review will produce a comprehensive assessment of measurement properties of existing measures of asthma-specific health-related quality of life. We also aim to derive recommendations in order to help researchers and practitioners alike in the choice of instrument.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PROSPERO registration number: CRD42014010491.
authors: Medical Sociology, Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauß-Allee 11, Regensburg 93051, Germany. christian.apfelbacher@klinik.uni-regensburg.de.
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Apfelbacher
authors: Priya
authors: P
authors: Paudyal
authors: Alpaslan
authors: A
authors: Bülbül
authors: Helen
authors: H
authors: Smith
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic