Biomedical subjects

Marge Kurland

Publications and source records attributed to Marge Kurland.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Comparison of parent and student responses to asthma surveys: students grades 3-12 and their parents from a suburban private school setting.

Schools are being called upon to help address asthma, a common problem in school-aged children. School-based asthma programs need information about asthma diagnoses, asthma symptoms, and asthma's impact on school attendance. Parent or student surveys are the most common method of collecting these data. However, medical literature offers little guidance to help schools determine whether parents or students are the most appropriate and effective source of asthma-related information. This study compares student and parent responses to the same set of asthma-related questions. In general, parents and students have a high level of agreement in reporting the absence of an asthma diagnosis or asthma symptoms. When parents and students disagreed, students reported many more asthmalike symptoms, especially symptoms with exercise and symptoms at night, than did their parents. The disparity in student and parent symptom reporting did not vary by age of the student. Students appear to provide the most sensitive measure of asthma-related problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Feasibility of school-based spirometry screening for asthma.

To determine the feasibility and value of spirometry in school-based asthma screening, spirometry testing was coupled with parent questionnaires in a school-based asthma screening project. Children in grades five to eight of the Catholic school system in Rochester, Minn., performed spirometry with coaching and data acquisition by nurses trained for this activity. Most students completed three tests. For each student, the best test was selected for interpretation. Tests were considered technically unacceptable for screening purposes if the FEV1 was less than 85% and the curve showed evidence of cough, delayed start, poor initial effort, incomplete effort, or non-reproducibility. Students with acceptable tests and FEV1 < 85% as predicted for age, race, and BMI were classified as appropriate for referral for further evaluation of potential asthma. A sensitivity analysis was conducted using different FEV1 thresholds for referral. Children (119, 17.6% of all) with known asthma based on parent-completed questionnaire were not considered for referral. Of the remaining 557 students screened, 535 had technically acceptable tests, and 498 had normal spirometry performance. Using a threshold for referral of FEV1 < 85%, 37 children were candidates for referral for further evaluation of potential asthma. Only four (11%) of these also had questionnaire responses that made them candidates for referral. School-based spirometry screening for asthma is technically feasible but there is little overlap between those who are referral candidates based on spirometry data and those who are referral candidates based on parent-reported symptoms on screening questionnaires. Without further study, spirometry cannot be recommended for school-based asthma screening.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

A longitudinal study of the prevalence of asthma in a community population of school-age children.

OBJECTIVE: Using a unique county-wide resource that links all health care providers' medical records to assess current and "ever" prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma. To describe the age and sex rates and temporal trends in new asthma diagnoses and associations with race and socio-economic status. STUDY DESIGN: A longitudinal retrospective evaluation of a population-based cohort of school children using linked medical and school records. RESULTS: Overall, 17.6% of children in grades kindergarten through 12 had a physician diagnosis of asthma and 12.9% had an asthma-related visit within the past 2 years. An additional 19.7% had visits for reactive airway disease or recurrent wheezing or bronchospasm with no diagnosis of asthma. Children provided with free and reduced-cost lunches had lower cumulative and incident asthma rates from birth through their current school age. Race was not related to rates of physician-diagnosed asthma. There was a significant temporal increase in rates of new asthma diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: In this community, 1 in 3 children have had a physician-documented recurrent wheezing-type illness, and 1 in 6 were diagnosed with asthma. Diagnoses rates were directly related to socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗