Affiliations: Lehrstuhl für Klinische und Angewandte
Psychologie, Rhein. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn | Klinik und Poliklinik für HNO-Heilkunde am
Universitätsklinikum Köln
Note: [] Korrespondenzadresse: Dr. Frank A. Kaspers, Psychologisches
Institut der Universität Bonn, Abtei-lung für Klinische und
Angewandte Psychologie, Römerstr. 164, 53117 Bonn. E-mail:
f.kaspers@uni-bonn.de
Abstract: FABAG–Questionnaire for breathing complaints of allergic
origin. Construction and initial results on reliability and validitiy Objectives: The FABAG questionnaire was developed to identify people
with allergic diseases when allergy testing is not possible or inappropriate.
Methods: Item selection and scale construction were performed using
a questionnaire for taking medical history of allergic diseases in medical
practice. Internal consistencies, retest reliability, discriminant analyses and
ROC-analyses were computed. Results: The first version of the questionnaire contained 103 items.
These were reduced to 49 items. They constitute four complaint scales
(rhinoconjunctivitis, skin symptoms, asthma, continuous colds) and three
scales of trigger factors (seasonal type, perennial type, animal type). In
addition allergy-related illness behavior constitutes a relevant psychological
dimension. Internal consistencies for the main scales range from satisfying to
very good, retest reliabilities from good to very good. The test seperates
persons with positive versus negative skin testing for pollen high
specifically. Conclusion: The FABAG seems to be a useful instrument to identify
subjects with allergic seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis.
Keywords: Allergy, hay fever, breathing complaints, screening, illness behavior
