The Concordance Between Lung Function Test and Indonesian Version of Childhood Asthma Control Test (CACT)

Background. Childhood Asthma Control Test (CACT) is a questionnaire to measure the level of asthma control in children. CACT is commonly known easy and simple to be implemented. Indonesian version of CACT has not been widely used because it is not known its correlation to clinical parameters since physician should consider the linguistic barrier of using it.

Aim. To evaluate the concordance of Indonesian version of CACT with spirometry of children with asthma

Methods. A cross-sectional study of children aged 4-11 years-old with asthma. The severe asthma children and those who have mental problems were excluded. The subjects were consecutively recruited to do the lung function test and peak flow meter twice a day for 2 weeks. All children had to fulfill the CACT and data was analyzed by Pearson/Spearman test to see its concordance to spirometry.

Results. We included 66 subjects aged 7.89 years-old (5.25-11.83). The majority of subjects are boys 62.1%,  most of all have good nutritional status and their parents are highly educated. Majority of subjects 60.4% showed uncontrolled asthma (CACT ≤19). Mean of FEV1 was 80% (SD 16.74) and mean of variability was 10.32% (SD4.93). There was no significant correlation between Indonesian version of CACT with FEV1(r =-0,024; p=0,846)  and weekly variability (r=-0,218; p=0,079).

Conclusion. Indonesian version of CACT showed no significant correlation with FEV1 and variability PFR so that it should not replace the need of regular spirometry in childhood asthma.