Caimmi D, et al. - This study wanted to gauge allergic rhinitis symptoms and disease control, to achieve that the use of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) in the MASK-rhinitis (MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel NetworK for allergic rhinitis) App (Allergy Diary) on smartphones screens was validated. As per observations, the MASK-rhinitis VAS was a reliable and valid tool to assess allergic control on smartphone screens, at the population level.

Methods

• In this study, each user filled 4 different VAS measuring overall, nasal, ocular and asthma symptoms at least once.
• Internal consistency, (Cronbach's alpha-coefficient and test-retest), reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients), sensitivity and acceptability, of the MASK-Rhinitis VAS were assessed, following COSMIN guidelines.

Results

• The app was used 14,612 times in 15 countries, between August 1st, 2015 and July 31st, 2016.
• During the evaluated period, 1,225 users used it more than once.
• Showing excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's test >0.84, test-retest > 0.7), reliability (>0.9) and acceptability, the tool resulted to be statistically satisfactory.
• When users (n=521) answered the VAS twice in less than three hours, the tool had a good sensitivity.