Management and referral of patients with severe and poorly controlled asthma in primary care.

Management and referral of patients with severe and poorly controlled asthma in primary care.

Fam Pract. 2016 Aug 20;

Authors: Orozco-Beltrán D, Carratalá-Munuera C, Arriero JM, Campo P, Martínez-Moragón E, Molina J, Quintano-Jiménez JA, Gil-Guillén VF, Working Group for the Consensus Document on the Management of Severe Asthma in Adults in Primary Health Care

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Over 50% of treated patients with asthma in Europe are not well controlled. Their management in primary health care (PHC) differs from that in specialized care, and there is no real coordination between the two.
OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers and solutions to improving the management of patients with severe and poorly controlled asthma and the communication between specialists and PHC, and to reach a consensus on the criteria for referral patients.
METHODS: An observational study using a modified Delphi technique. About 79 physicians from PHC, pneumology and allergy fields from different Spanish regions were invited to participate via an online questionnaire. Consensus was reached on an item when more than two-thirds of the panel members scored within the 3-point category (1-3 or 7-9) containing the median and the interquartile range of answers had to be ?4 points.
RESULTS: Response rate: 52%. After the second round, consensus items were 40 (62.5%): of which 37 in agreement and 3 in disagreement. Around 92.68% of respondents agreed that it would be useful to incorporate questionnaires for asthma control into PHC computer-based searches. About 100% of participants agreed that clear consensus criteria between PHC and specialists must be determined to decide when a patient with asthma is referred from PHC to specialist or vice versa. Ten of the proposed criteria reached consensus agreement.
CONCLUSION: The failure to use guidelines and specific questionnaires for asthma control in PHC is one reason why there is underdiagnosis and poor control of asthma. Some strategies to improve the asthma care management emerged from the survey results.

PMID: 27543792 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

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Very poorly controlled asthma lasts more than a decade for half of patients – The Pharmaceutical Journal


The Pharmaceutical Journal

Very poorly controlled asthma lasts more than a decade for half of patients
The Pharmaceutical Journal
The researchers, who presented their results at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on 15–18 May 2016, say that alternative treatment strategies and helping patients to quit smoking could improve the asthma control of these patients.

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Very poorly controlled asthma may persist for more than a decade despite treatment – Healio

Very poorly controlled asthma may persist for more than a decade despite treatment
Healio
Almost half of patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma in the TENOR II cohort still had symptoms of very poorly controlled asthma following more than a decade of treatment, according to data presented at the annual American Thoracic Society …

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Very poorly controlled asthma highly prevalent in TENOR II cohort after more than a decade – EurekAlert (press release)

Very poorly controlled asthma highly prevalent in TENOR II cohort after more than a decade
EurekAlert (press release)
ATS 2016, SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly half (48%) of patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma in The Epidemiology and Natural History of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens follow-up study (TENOR II) still had very poorly controlled (VPC) …

View full post on asthma – Google News