Effectiveness of Asthma Home Management Manual and Low-Cost Air Filter on Quality of Life Among Asthma Adults: A 3-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial [Response to Letter]

Dear editor

We thank Riya Kalra for her interest in our recently published paper “Effectiveness of Asthma Home Management Manual and Low-Cost Air Filter on Quality of Life Among Asthma Adults: A 3-arm Randomized Controlled Trial”. We would like to share our thoughts about the concerns raised by Riya Kalra.

We acknowledge that some keywords may not strictly adhere to MeSH guidelines. However, these keywords are indeed relevant to our study. Their inclusion in the abstract is a purposeful choice based on their significance to our research. While we understand the importance of considering the minimum values of all outcome measures, this study employed an RCT design. The randomization methodology helps to homogenize participant characteristics between groups, which should account for baseline (or minimum values). The primary outcome of our study is the “changes” in Asthma QOL, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the impact of our intervention.

The consideration of asthma duration affects study results. However, the RCT design minimizes this effect on our study’s outcomes. Additionally, our data analysis section specifies non-parametric analysis, assuming the data is not normally distributed. The normality test assessment is mentioned in the data analysis section, stating:

The Kruskal–Wallis test and chi-square test were used to test the comparability of baseline data, as the data were skewed. The Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the outcomes.

In the results section, we did not perform within-group and between-group analyses for the Asthma Control Test (ACT) and sociodemographic data as these were not considered outcome measures of our study. Instead, they were regarded as baseline data, so a between-group analysis was conducted at the baseline.