Summary

What it measures:

The Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) is a 32-item questionnaire used to assess the physical, occupational, emotional, and social qualities of adults aged 17 to 70 years with asthma (Juniper et al, 2005).

The AQLQ has 4 domains: symptoms (12 items), activity limitation (6 generic and 5 patient-specific items), emotional function (5 items), and environmental stimuli (4 items). The AQLQ was developed for patients exhibiting mild to moderate asthma (Aburuz et al, 2007). The AQLQ items are each scored on a 7-point Likert scale, with 1 representing maximal impairment and 7 representing no impairment. The original AQLQ includes 5 patient-specific questions in the activity limitation domain. As part of the initial interview, the patient indicates 5 activity limitations due to asthma. These 5 activity limitations are used for the remaining follow-up visits. However, identifying patient-specific activity limitations takes time and these limitations may change over time.

The Standardized Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ-S) replaces the patient-specific activities in the original AQLQ with 5 generic activities that have been identified as the most frequent activity limitations with asthma. The AQLQ-S has been fully validated and is used more often due to its efficiency (Juniper et al, 2005).