This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

RAND-IAQL effectively measured impact of asthma on quality of life

The RAND Negative Impact of Asthma on Quality of Life item bank effectively measured the impact of asthma on quality of life, according to researchers.

“The 2010 National Institutes of Health Asthma Outcomes Workshop recommended that a new generation of quality of life (QoL) instruments was needed,” the researchers wrote. “In response to this recommendation, we developed the RAND Negative Impact of Asthma on Quality of Life (RAND-IAQL) item bank of 65 asthma-specific QoL items.”

Cathy Sherbourne

The researchers administered the item bank among 2,032 adults with asthma aged 18 to 99 years (mean age, 43 years). They observed a poorer impact of asthma on QoL among men compared with women (P=.004). The impact was greater among blacks and Hispanics compared with white patients (P<.001).

The findings correlated with scores from the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire-Marks and the Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System.

“Evidence from this study suggests that the RAND-IAQL item bank and its short forms show promise as a new tool designed to reduce respondent burden yet provide precise estimates of the impact of asthma on a person’s QoL,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant financial disclosures.