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Indian Pediatr 2017;54: 419 |
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Methodological Issues in Association of
Allergic Rhinitis and Sinusitis with Childhood Asthma
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MD Bashar and Kamal Kishore
School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.
Email:
[email protected]
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We read with interest the recent study in Indian Pediatrics by
Chinnakkannan, et al. [1] on the above subject. There are certain
methodological issues that we would like to raise. First, the children
(<13 years) with asthma presenting first time to the clinic were
included, but there was no mention of the basis of their diagnosis –
whether based on history and clinical features only or combining them
with spirometry. Second, there was no mention of sampling technique used
for recruiting the participants for the study. It was probably a
convenient sampling. Further there was no mention about sample size
calculation and minimum required sample as authors were also trying to
find the prevalence of the two conditions (allergic rhinitis and
sinusitis) in children with asthma, and enrolment of minimum required
sample is necessary for validity of the findings [2]. Third, the authors
have mentioned that they have used multiple logistic regression model to
determine the independent factors associated with asthma severity.
However, it was not mentioned that in how many groups or categories the
children were categorized based on asthma severity. Hence, it was not
clear whether a binary logistic regression or ordinal logistic
regression model was applied. Lastly, authors mentioned that use of
computed tomography (CT) scan for diagnosis of sinusitis in the study
might have led to lower estimate of the prevalence. However, it would
have been better if they had mentioned the proportion of clinically
suspected sinusitis cases having positive findings in CT scan and those
not having any findings in CT.
References
1. Chinnakkannan SK, Singh M, Das RR, Mathew JL,
Saxena KA. Association of allergic rhinitis and sinusitis with childhood
asthma. Indian Pediatr. 2017;54:21-24.
2. Jones SR, Carley S, Harrison M. The importance of
power and sample size estimation for study design and analysis. Emerg
Med J. 2003;20:453-8.
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