The Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness Questionnaire (BHQ) aims to assess bronchial hyperresponsiveness in patients with asthma (section: diseases & symptoms). It is implemented in the Lifelines cohort to assess bronchial hyperresponsiveness in the general population.
Note that respiratory symptoms were also assessed using the ELON instrument and several general questions. Respiratory diseases are also assessed.

BHQ is a 34-item condition-specific questionnaire including 15 questions on respiratory symptoms and 19 on provoking stimuli during the past three months. Each question is scored on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from no complaints (1) to severe complaints (7).
The questionnaire was originally developed in Dutch and was translated in English. It was developed based on a literature review (English), in-depth interviews (Dutch), and a focus group discussion (Dutch) with asthma patients. The questionnaire was based on the PC20-histamine test as the gold standard. Factor analysis was conducted to identify clusters of interrelated questionnaire items. Spearman rank correlation tests were performed to investigate the relation between PC20-histamine levels and the item results ¹⁾.