Validation of Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test for Children (CARATKids) – a prospective multicenter study

Abstract

Background: Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test for Children (CARATKids) is the first questionnaire that assesses simultaneously allergic rhinitis and asthma control in children. It was recently developed, but redundancy of questions and its psychometric properties were not assessed. This study aimed to (i) establish the final version of the CARATKids questionnaire and (ii) evaluate its reliability, responsiveness, cross-sectional validity, and longitudinal validity. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in 11 Portuguese centers. During two visits separated by 6 wk, CARATKids, visual analog scale scales and childhood asthma control test were completed, and participant's asthma and rhinitis were evaluated by his/her physician without knowing the questionnaires' results. Datadriven item reduction was conducted, and internal consistency, responsiveness analysis, and associations with external measures of disease status were assessed. Results: Of the 113 children included, 101 completed both visits. After item reduction, the final version of the questionnaire has 13 items, eight to be answered by the child and five by the caregiver. Its Cronbach's alpha was 0.80, the Guyatt's responsiveness index was À1.51, and a significant (p < 0.001) within-patient change of CARATKids score in clinical unstable patients was observed. Regarding cross-sectional validity, correlation coefficients of CARATKids with the external measures of control were between 0.45 and À0.69 and met the a priori predictions. In the longitudinal validity assessment, the correlation coefficients between the score changes of CARATKids and those of external measures of control ranged from 0.34 to 0.46. Conclusion: CARATKids showed adequate psychometric properties and is ready to be used in clinical practice.

MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel NetworK for allergic rhinitis (MASK-rhinitis): the new generation guideline implementation

“…CARAT can be used in a range of settings and circumstances in primary and secondary care for clinical, research and audit purposes, and also in ambulatory pharmacies (116). It can be used both in adults and children (117,118) and strengthens the partnership between patients and doctors in the management of asthma and rhinitis. CARAT can be administered every 2-4 weeks both in paper and electronic forms (119) and represents an additional tool for daily assessment.…”

Asthma and allergic rhinitis in childhood: what's new

“…Standardized questionnaires for evaluating the control of asthma and AR and patients’ HRQoL have been used in recent years. Among these, Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test for Children (CARATKids) has been developed and validated in children aged 6–12 years . In addition, RHINASTHMA‐Adolescents was based on the literature review, clinical experience, and unstructured interviews .…”

Effect of nasal irrigation on allergic rhinitis control in children; complementarity between CARAT and MASK outcomes

“…CARATKids includes 13 "Yes/No" questions: affirmative answers scored as 1 (corresponding to "symptom/ item present"), while negative answers scored as 0 ("symptom/item not present"). Therefore, 13 points correspond to a complete absence of control [18]. A version translated by the authors was used.…”