Comparing questionnaires for the assessment of acute mountain sickness.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_B8CC7CB83281
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Comparing questionnaires for the assessment of acute mountain sickness.
Journal
High Altitude Medicine and Biology
ISSN
1527-0297 (Print)
ISSN-L
1527-0297
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2007
Volume
8
Number
3
Pages
184-191
Language
english
Abstract
Exposure to high altitude in nonacclimatized subjects may lead to acute mountain sickness (AMS). AMS is a syndrome characterized by headache accompanied by one or more other symptoms, such as light-headedness, dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, lassitude, and trouble sleeping. Assessing the presence and degree of AMS can be done using self-administered questionnaires like the Lake Louise Questionnaire (LLQ) and the Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire-III (ESQ-III). We compared LLQ and ESQ-III in 266 trekkers of different nationalities trekking over a 5400-m-high pass to assess if the two questionnaires identify the same population as suffering from AMS and to see whether using English questionnaires poses problems for nonnative English-speaking persons. The use of English questionnaires by nonnative English speakers influenced the outcome for some nationalities. For criterion scores yielding similar prevalence of AMS, ESQ-III labeled 20% of cases differently (AMS or no AMS) when compared to LLQ. Correlations between similar individual questions of ESQ-III and LLQ were variable, and there was considerable scatter between ESQ-III and LLQ scores. In conclusion, English questionnaires may pose problems in some international settings, and ESQ-III and LLQ may identify different populations as suffering from AMS.
Keywords
Acute Disease, Adult, Altitude Sickness/classification, Altitude Sickness/diagnosis, Environmental Exposure/adverse effects, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mountaineering, Questionnaires/classification, Regression Analysis, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment/methods, Sensitivity and Specificity
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
19/09/2013 9:28
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:26