Kelly A Quinn, MPH¹, Carolyn A Berry, PhD², Giselle Mosnaim, MD, MS³, Madeleine U Shalowitz, MD, MBA¹, and Raoul L. Wolf, MD⁴. (1) Research Institute, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, 1001 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201, 224-364-7454, kquinn@enh.org, (2) Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, 726 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York City, NY 10003, (3) Allergy & Immunology, Rush University, 1725 W. Harrison Street, Suite 117, Chicago, IL 60612, (4) Dept. of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, La Rabida Children's Hospital and Research Center, East 65th Street at Lake Michigan, Chicago, IL 60649

Purpose Low-income, urban, minority children suffer disproportionately from asthma, and underdiagnosis is common. Studies show that Puerto Ricans have especially high rates and that the “immigrant paradox” may contribute to the increase in asthma rates with increased time in the US. Latinos are a growing population in the US. Language and culture influence how people respond to health-related questions, yet there is a lack of tools created and validated with English- and Spanish-speaking Latinos.

We translated into Spanish a parent-completed screen for child asthma with good sensitivity (73%) and specificity (74%) for African Americans. We validate the original screen and the Spanish translation with Latinos against the “gold standard” for asthma, an allergist’s medical assessment.

Methods We have screened 1000 elementary students in low-income, predominantly Latino schools. Parents chose to complete the English or Spanish screen. The validation sample will include 200 children aged 5-12 (100 each whose parents completed the English/Spanish screen), half with no signs of asthma and half with signs of possible, undiagnosed asthma. The bilingual physicians are blinded to screen responses. They conduct a medical history and physical exam and assign each child an asthma score of no or possible/definite.

Results Screening shows high rates of diagnosed asthma (11%) and possible asthma (12%) among this Mexican-American (70%) and Puerto Rican (23%) sample. The validation will compare the screen responses with the physician assessments to statistically determine sensitivity (ability to detect positives) and specificity (ability to exclude negatives) of the English and Spanish tools separately. We have recruited 66; the validation will be complete by the time of presentation.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the need to validate instruments with relevant populations and in different languages
• Understand the methodology use to validate an asthma screen with Latino children
• Learn methods for screening for asthma among school children

Keywords: Asthma, Screening Instruments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.