Abstract
BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic airways inflammatory disease considered as a serious public health problem. Since asthma is a lifelong condition, the assessment of its control is important to achieve a better self-management. Based on the advances of the assessment tools, many instruments have been developed to assess asthma control. Therefore, this systematic review aims to assess the measurement properties, the methodological quality, and the content of outcome measures of the available patient- and proxy-reported asthma control instruments. METHODS: This is a systematic review protocol of the measurement properties of asthma control patient- and proxy-reported outcome instruments. Database searches will be primarily performed on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and PsycINFO. A manual search of websites considered databases for questionnaires and reference lists will also be conducted. The methodological quality of the studies and the measurement properties will be critically appraised using the COSMIN risk of bias (RoB) checklist. The content of all measurement instruments will be compared based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework. RESULTS: The findings from this systematic review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at scientific conferences. CONCLUSION: The proposed systematic review will produce a comprehensive evaluation of the measurement properties of the currently available asthma control instruments for both adult and pediatric populations. We aim to help researchers and practitioners in their choice of an adequate instrument and to highlight the gaps in currently available tools. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42019126042.