A study of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian...Portuguese version of Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire (BHQ) is a simple, repeatable, and self-reporting health status questionnaire for bronchiectasis. This study aims to cross-culturally adapt the BHQ into Brazilian Portuguese and evaluate its measurement properties. METHODS: The participants answered the Saint George...s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale for dyspnea. The Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire (BHQ-Brazil) was used at baseline (test) and after 14 days (retest). The psychometric analyses included internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity: factorial validity, convergent validity, and discriminative validity, agreement, and ceiling and floor effects. RESULTS: The BHQ-Brazil demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach...s alpha...=...0.92) and substantial reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient...=...0.86; 95%CI: 0.79...0.90). The exploratory factorial analysis was considered suitable. All items presented a factorial load >0.40. The convergent validity of the BHQ-Brazil with mMRC was moderate (r...=......0.53, p...<...0.001), while concurrent validity with the SGRQ was strong (symptoms: r...=......0.72, activities: r...=......0.60, impact: r...=......0.60, total score: r...=......0.75, all p...<...0.001). The standard error of measurement was 4.81 points. The discriminative validity demonstrated that individuals with more pulmonary exacerbations, colonization by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, worst dyspnea, and a higher number of affected lung lobes presented the lowest quality of life. No floor or ceiling effects were observed. CONCLUSION: The BHQ-Brazil presents adequate measurement properties to evaluate the impact of bronchiectasis on health-related quality of life, and can be used in clinical and research settings.

Predicting high risk of exacerbations in bronchiectasis: the E-FACED score.

BACKGROUND: Although the FACED score has demonstrated a great prognostic capacity in bronchiectasis, it does not include the number or severity of exacerbations as a separate variable, which is important in the natural history of these patients. OBJECTIVE: Construction and external validation of a new index, the E-FACED, to evaluate the predictive capacity of exacerbations and mortality. METHODS: The new score was constructed on the basis of the complete cohort for the construction of the original FACED score, while the external validation was undertaken with six cohorts from three countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Chile). The main outcome was the number of annual exacerbations/hospitalizations, with all-cause and respiratory-related deaths as the secondary outcomes. A statistical evaluation comprised the relative weight and ideal cut-off point for the number or severity of the exacerbations and was incorporated into the FACED score (E-FACED). The results obtained after the application of FACED and E-FACED were compared in both the cohorts. RESULTS: A total of 1,470 patients with bronchiectasis (819 from the construction cohorts and 651 from the external validation cohorts) were followed up for 5 years after diagnosis. The best cut-off point was at least two exacerbations in the previous year (two additional points), meaning that the E-FACED has nine points of growing severity. E-FACED presented an excellent prognostic capacity for exacerbations (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.82 for at least two exacerbations in 1 year and 0.87 for at least one hospitalization in 1 year) that was statistically better than that of the FACED score (0.72 and 0.78, P<0.05, respectively). The predictive capacities for all-cause and respiratory mortality were 0.87 and 0.86, respectively, with both being similar to those of the FACED. CONCLUSION: E-FACED score significantly increases the FACED capacity to predict future yearly exacerbations while maintaining the score's simplicity and prognostic capacity for death.