Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance Symptom Inventory: Development, Evaluation, and Application

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine:
July 2009 - Volume 51 - Issue 7 - pp 838-847
doi: 10.1097/JOM.0b013e3181a7f021
 
Original Articles

The Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance Symptom Inventory: Development, Evaluation, and Application

 

Andersson, Maria J. E. MSc; Andersson, Linus MSc; Bende, Mats MD, PhD; Millqvist, Eva MD, PhD; Nordin, Steven PhD

 

Abstract

 

Objective: To develop, evaluate, and apply a questionnaire-based instrument for investigation of specific symptoms in idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI), called the Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance Symptom Inventory (IEISI).

 

Methods: Participants with IEI to chemicals responded to 82 candidate symptoms and to three subscales of the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI) at a test (n = 207) and retest (n = 193) occasion.

 

Results: The 27 most commonly reported symptoms were selected and grouped into five symptom categories. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were found to be satisfying. Cluster analysis identified two subgroups of IEI to chemicals.

 

Conclusions: The results provide support for the IEISI being a reliable, valid, and fast tool for the study of specific symptom prevalence in IEI and encourage further study of subgroups.

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