Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT) can be used to assess individual patients over time

BACKGROUND: The Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT10) has been proposed as the first tool to implement the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma initiative guidelines in clinical practice. To serve this purpose, it must have adequate properties to assess the control of an individual over time. This study aimed to prospectively assess the test-retest reliability, responsiveness and longitudinal validity of CARAT10. METHODS: Adults with asthma and allergic rhinitis were enrolled at 4 outpatient clinics of Portuguese central hospitals. At each of the two visits, 4 to 6 weeks apart, patients filled out CARAT10 and additional questionnaires, followed by a medical evaluation blinded to the questionnaires' answers. RESULTS: From the 62 patients included, 51 patients completely filled out CARAT10 at both visits. The test-retest reliability, computed as an intra-class correlation coefficient, was 0.82. Regarding responsiveness, a significant change (p = 0.002) of CARAT10 score in clinically unstable patients was observed (95%CI -5.08; -1.31) and the Guyatt's responsiveness index was 1.54. As for the longitudinal validity assessment, the correlation coefficients of the changes of CARAT10 scores with those of ACQ5 and symptoms VAS ranged from 0.49 to 0.65, while with the physician assessment of control they ranged from 0.31 to 0.41. CONCLUSION: CARAT10 has good test-retest reliability, responsiveness and longitudinal validity. It can be used to assess control of allergic rhinitis and asthma, both to compare groups in clinical studies and to evaluate individual patients in clinical practice

Motivation and treatment engagement intervention trial (MotivaTe-IT): The effects of motivation feedback to clinicians on treatment engagement in patients with severe mental illness

Background: Treatment disengagement and non-completion poses a major problem for the successful treatment of patients with severe mental illness. Motivation for treatment has long been proposed as a major determinant of treatment engagement, but exact mechanisms remain unclear. This current study serves three purposes: 1) to determine whether a feedback intervention based on the patients' motivation for treatment is effective at improving treatment engagement (TE) of severe mentally ill patients in outpatient psychiatric treatment, 2) to gather insight into motivational processes and pos

Diagnostic tools in Rhinology EAACI position paper

This EAACI Task Force document aims at providing the readers with a comprehensive and complete overview of the currently available tools for diagnosis of nasal and sino-nasal disease. We have tried to logically order the different important issues related to history taking, clinical examination and additional investigative tools for evaluation of the severity of sinonasal disease into a consensus document. A panel of European experts in the field of Rhinology has contributed to this consensus document on Diagnostic Tools in Rhinology