ABSTRACT
As the vast majority of people with asthma are managed in primary care, any approach to diagnosis and monitoring has to be simple, low cost, relatively rapid and practical. The diagnosis of asthma includes a thorough case history focusing on symptoms and asthma control. In secondary and tertiary care, the focus might extend to evaluation of asthma severity often done by questionnaire-based tools, and lastly documentation of endotypes.
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs or PRO) are questionnaires measuring patients’ views of their own health status. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are questionnaires measuring patients’ perceptions of their experiences whilst receiving care. PROMs are self-completed questionnaires, in which patients are asked about their own perspectives of their feelings, symptoms, before and after treatment. Patients’ responses to the same questions may also vary over time, as their responses may depend on disease stage and on the level of treatment. Responses over time make it possible to evaluate change in health at different time points. Such responses may also be used in research to gain a better understanding of specific diseases and treatment responses. In the current chapter, focus is on adults with symptoms and events suggestive for airway disease and a cluster of questionnaires often used.
