Abstract
Several tools are useful in detecting uncontrolled asthma in children. The aim of this study was to compare GINA guidelines with the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) and the Asthma Control Test (ACT) in detecting uncontrolled asthma in children.
145 children with asthma filled in a web-based daily diary card for 4 weeks on symptoms, use of rescue medication and limitations of activities, followed by either the C-ACT or ACT. For predicting uncontrolled asthma, cut-off points of 19 for C-ACT and ACT were used.
According to GINA guidelines, asthma was uncontrolled in 71 children (51%) and completely controlled in 19 children (14%). The area under the curve (AUC) in the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves for C-ACT and ACT versus GINA guidelines were 0.89 and 0.92, respectively. Cut-off points of 19 for C-ACT and ACT resulted in a sensitivity of 33% and 66% in predicting uncontrolled asthma, respectively.
C-ACT and ACT correlate well with GINA criteria in predicting uncontrolled asthma, but commonly used cut-off points for C-ACT and ACT seem to underestimate the proportion of children with uncontrolled asthma as defined by GINA.
- ERS