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‘‘PREDICTING WORSENING ASTHMA CONTROL FOLLOWING THE COMMON COLD’’. M.J. WALTER, M. CASTRO,S.J. KUNSELMAN, V.M. CHINCHILLI, M. RENO, T.P. RAMKUMAR, P.C. AVILA, H.A. BOUSHEY, B.T. AMEREDES,E.R. BLEECKER, W.J. CALHOUN, R.M. CHERNIACK, T.J. CRAIG, L.C. DENLINGER, E. ISRAEL, J.V. FAHY, N.N. JARJOUR,M. KRAFT, S.C. LAZARUS, R.F. LEMANSKE JR, R.J. MARTIN S.P. PETERS, J.W. RAMSDELL, C.A. SORKNESS,E.R. SUTHERLAND, S.J. SZEFLER, S.I. WASSERMAN, M.E. WECHSLER AND THE NATHIONAL HEART, LUNG ANDBLOOD INSTITUTE’S ASTHMA CLINICAL RESEARCH NETWORK. EUR RESPIR J 2008; 32: 1548–1554.
Professor Elizabeth Juniper kindly granted the Asthma Clinical 4) Additional question regarding current cold symptoms placed Research Network permission to use her copyrighted, vali- above the instructions. (This question was not incorporated in dated shortened version of her Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) [1–3] in our studies. In the above study, we regret that 5) Instructions to identify each response by checking a box we modified her questionnaire without her authorisation. In (instead of circling the number in front of each response).
this study, we referred to it as the ‘‘PAX Feasibility AsthmaControl Questionnaire’’ and we posted this modified version 6) The words in each question, used to emphasise that patients in the supplement to our article (figures S1 and S2).
should respond to each question as related to their asthma, Throughout the manuscript our modified version was referred were unboldened (this was not intentional, as bolding was not to incorrectly as the ‘‘mini-ACQ’’ when in fact it should have been referred to as ‘‘a modified version of a validated 7) Modification of Question 6: the phrase ‘‘how many puffs/ shortened version of the ACQ’’ [2, 3].
inhalations of short-acting bronchodilator (e.g., Ventolin/ Some of the modifications to the questionnaire were made with Bricanyl)’’ was changed to ‘‘how many puffs of short-acting the intention of facilitating data recording and entry, and bronchodilator (e.g., Ventolin or Proventil)’’.
adapting for available short-acting bronchodilator drugs in Professor Juniper has indicated these modifications may have North America; other changes were made through inadvertence.
affected the validity, measurement properties and interpret- The questionnaire was modified from the version faxed to us ability of the ACQ. We are evaluating whether our changes are by Professor Juniper to contain the following.
likely to have altered the properties of the questionnaire or theconclusions of the paper.
1) The numbers of the seven-point response scale weresubscripted and made smaller so that they were no longer The authors apologise to the European Respiratory Journal and adjacent to their verbal descriptor or the tick boxes. Professor Professor Juniper for the modifications made to the validated Juniper considers that this may have introduced bias and that shortened version of the ACQ and for failing to obtain some patients may not have realised that they were responding authorisation for the changes and to follow proper copyright to a numerical scale, especially as similar numbers were added procedures. We will notify the ERJ Chief Editors as soon as wehave completed our evaluation of the possible impact, if any, to the ‘‘yes/no’’ response to the cold question.
of the changes made to the interpretation of our findings.
2) Copyright ownership, date and statement (‘‘The AsthmaControl Questionnaire is copyrighted. It may not be altered,sold (paper or electronic), translated or adapted for another medium without the permission of Elizabeth Juniper’’) were 1 Juniper EF, O’Byrne PM, Guyatt GH, et al. Development and removed. The name of the questionnaire was changed.
validation of a questionnaire to measure asthma control. Eur Respir J1999; 14: 902–907.
3) Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN) header was 2 Juniper EF, O’Byrne PM, Roberts JN. Measuring asthma control in group studies: do we need airway calibre and rescue beta2-agonistuse? Respir Med 2001; 95: 319–323.
3 Juniper EF, Svensson K, Mork AC, et al. Measurement properties and interpretation of three shortened versions of the asthma controlquestionnaire. Respir Med 2005; 99: 553–558.
For editorial comments see page 1015.

Source: http://ersj.org.uk/content/34/5/1212.full.pdf