RESEARCH ARTICLE Assessing the responsiveness of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire with pharmaceutical care Nadir M. Kheir Lynne Emmerton John P. Shaw Received: 18 May 2007 / Accepted: 30 October 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract Objective To assess the responsiveness of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) in the context of pharmaceutical care delivery New Zealand community pharmacy setting. Setting Community phar- macy practices in three locations in the Otago and Southland region of New Zealand. Method About 62 patients with asthma (17–80 years of age) were recrui- ted in five community pharmacies in the Otago and the Southland region of New Zealand. Patients were ran- domly assigned to two groups (Group 1 and Group 2). The AQLQ and a study-specific outcomes questionnaire were administered to both groups at baseline (T1), then again (with an additional global Self-Assessment of change question) 3 months later (at T2) after providing the service to Group 1. Responsiveness of the AQLQ was assessed by measuring the ability of the AQLQ to detect within-subject change in patients who subjec- tively indicated change, and to distinguish between two groups of patients: those who indicated change and those who indicated no change. Additionally, the cor- relation between the change of the AQLQ scores at T2 and the patients’ self-assessment of change at T2 was estimated and used as means for assessing the AQLQ responsiveness. Main outcome measure Asthma-specific quality of life as measured by the AQLQ and change in quality of life as perceived by participants. Results The results supported the responsiveness of three out of the four domains of the Asthma Quality of Life Question- naire. The fourth domain, Environmental stimuli, showed weaker responsiveness, and the reasons of this were discussed. Conclusion This study provided data supporting the responsiveness of the AQLQ when used in the context of pharmaceutical care. However, while the AQLQ’s Activity Limitation, Symptoms and Emo- tional domains reflected adequate sensitivity to change in QoL over time, its Environmental domain was less sensitive. Researchers conducting longitudinal studies utilising the AQLQ in pharmaceutical care interventions should bear this in mind, and should consider the pos- sible reasons for this apparent lack of responsiveness, and its implications. Keywords Asthma Á AQLQ Á New Zealand Á Pharmaceutical care Á Quality of life Á Responsiveness Impact of the findings on practice • This study provides evidence supporting the ability of the AQLQ to measure change in asthma-specific qual- ity of life in pharmaceutical care settings. • Pharmacy practitioners and researchers can have more confidence in the utilization of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionniare, but its use in longitudinal studies needs to be evaluated further. N. M. Kheir (&) Pharmacy Program, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar e-mail: nadirk@qu.edu.qa L. Emmerton School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia J. P. Shaw School of Pharmacy, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand 123 Pharm World Sci DOI 10.1007/s11096-007-9179-y