VALIDATION STUDY
The Asthma Impairment and Risk Questionnaire (AIRQ®) is a validated composite control tool designed to identify the level of asthma control for patients 12 years of age and older.
A VALIDATED AIRQ® DESIGN1
A VALIDATED AIRQ® DESIGN1
AIRQ® is a 10-item, equally weighted, yes/no composite asthma control questionnaire.
It combines 7 impairment and 3 risk items that address a broad array of factors that are relevant to patients with asthma of all disease severities:
- Daytime and nighttime symptoms
- Activities of daily living
- Rescue medication use
- Social activities
- Exercise
- Perception of control of asthma
- Exacerbations
- Related health care resource utilization, including emergency room or in-patient hospital care
The AIRQ®'s simple response format provides critical information necessary for assessing asthma control.
AIRQ® VS EXISTING MEASURES OF ASTHMA CONTROL1
AIRQ® VS EXISTING MEASURES OF ASTHMA CONTROL1
A number of validated asthma control measures for patients ≥12 years with asthma, like the AIRQ®, are in existence today.
However, some of the measures being used in clinical practice are limited by assessing only the impairment domain of control. Furthermore, asthma control is often overestimated by providers and patients.
Among the 228 patients participating in the cross-sectional AIRQ® validation study who were rated by physicians as completely or well-controlled, 31.5% experienced exacerbations in the prior year.
To address the limitations of existing measures, the AIRQ® design was informed by a large and diverse team of scientists and clinicians with expertise and experience in asthma management, representing the providers who will ultimately use the tool with their patients. Learn more about the team who created the AIRQ® here.
SENSITIVITY & SPECIFICITY1
AIRQ® was validated in a study comprised of 442 patients aged ≥12 years with physician-diagnosed asthma who were followed in specialty practices.
Patients spanned all disease severities and were classified as well-controlled, not well-controlled, or very poorly controlled according to a standard of Asthma Control Test (ACT™) score plus prior-year, chart-documented exacerbations.
The combination of AIRQ® items and cut points of control demonstrated a sensitivity of 0.90 to identify patients whose asthma was well-controlled versus all others (cut point of ≥2), and a specificity of 0.96 to determine patients whose asthma was very poorly controlled versus all others (cut point of ≥5).
For further information on the development and cross-sectional validation of the AIRQ®, please refer to Murphy KR, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2020;8(7):2263-2247.e5.
If you want to use AIRQ® in your research, click here for information on licensing AIRQ®.
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1Murphy KR, Chipps B, Beuther DA, et al. Development of the asthma impairment and risk questionnaire (AIRQ): a composite control measure. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2020;8(7):2263-2274.e5.
Get Started Using the AIRQ® in Your Practice Today!
Get started with helping your patients assess their asthma control by accessing the digital and print versions of the AIRQ® and Follow-up AIRQ®. You'll also find the tools you need to seamlessly integrate AIRQ® into your practice—digitally, on paper, or within your EHR platform.