Dear editor
The research work conducted by Sirilak et al,1 titled “Effectiveness of Asthma Home Management Manual and Low-Cost Air Filter on Quality of Life Among Asthma Adults: A 3-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial” documented effective and interesting clinical findings. The study concludes that implementing a home management guide and using affordable filters in air circulation systems provide benefits in enhancing the quality of life for individuals with mild to moderate asthma. But certain aspects of the study need clarification.
Firstly, keywords mentioned in the abstract such as home management manual, low-cost air filter is not according to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).2
Secondly, it is important to take into account the minimum values of all outcome measures before enrolling participants in the study. This includes considering the minimum values of the Thai Mini Asthma Quality of Life (mAQLQ), Asthma Control Test (ACT), and the Sociodemographic Questionnaire before recruiting patients.3
Thirdly, Duration of Asthma should be considered as chronic cases of asthma have several secondary complications which might affect a patient’s clinical presentation and response to treatment.4
Fourthly, the data analysis section does not specify whether the data follows a normal distribution or not. Additionally, it is unclear on what basis (for within-group or between-group analysis) the Kruskal–Wallis and Wilcoxon tests were employed to analyze outcome measures.5
Lastly, in the results section, within group analysis and between group analysis of outcome measures such as Asthma Control Test (ACT) and Sociodemographic Questionnaire are not described.
I encourage the authors to take this matter into consideration and trust that these remarks and concerns will be attended to in order to enhance the clarity and quality of the findings presented.
Disclosure
The author discloses no conflicts of Interest in this communication.
References
- 1.Muanprasong S, Aqilah S, Hermayurisca F, Taneepanichskul N. Effectiveness of asthma home management manual and low-cost air filter on quality of life among asthma adults: a 3-arm randomized controlled trial. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2024;17:2613–2622. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S397388 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.National Library of Medicine. MeSH on Demand. Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/oet/ed/mesh/meshondemand.html. Accessed July 5, 2024.
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- 5.Habibzadeh F. Statistical data editing in scientific articles. J Korean Med Sci. 2017;32(7):1072. doi: 10.3346/2Fjkms.2017.32.7.1072 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]