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Questionnaire can help pediatricians track respiratory, asthma control

Chipps B. Pediatrics. 2011;127:e737-e747.

The Test for Respiratory and Asthma Control in Kids, or TRACK, can help pediatricians, as well as asthma specialists, monitor asthma symptoms in patients, according to researchers.

Bradley Chipps, MD,of Capital Allergy and Respiratory Disease Center, in Sacramento, Calif., and colleagues said although the questionnaire has mainly been used by asthma specialists, the model can work for pediatricians.

Guidelines from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (Expert Panel Report 3) recommend the use of assessment tools to help patients understand asthma severity.

To validate the questionnaire’s use in pediatric practices, Chipps and colleagues asked caregivers of children aged younger than 5 years to complete the TRACK questionnaire at two separate visits a month to 6 weeks apart. The study ran from January to May 2009, and 438 child-caregiver pairs, chosen from 20 US sites selected from the AAP Quality Improvement Innovation Network, participated.

The questionnaire focuses on breathing problems and medication use within the previous 4 weeks. Chipps and colleagues said the TRACK scores trended in “expected directions” for children whose parents reported poorly controlled or well-controlled asthma during the preceding 4 weeks.

“The diagnosis of asthma can be challenging because of a lack of objective measures of pulmonary function and symptom similarity to common childhood illnesses,” Chipps and colleagues wrote. “The TRACK tool should facilitate efforts to improve assessment of respiratory control in children younger than 5 years with a history of asthma-like symptoms.”

Disclosure: Dr. Chipps receives grants for clinical research or educational activities from the following companies and has served as an adviser and/or on the speakers’ bureau for: Alcon Aventis, Genentech, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Schering-Plough, Sepracor and Merck. He has served as an adviser for MedPoint and has served on speakers’ bureaus for Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer.

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