Abstract
The goal of asthma treatment is to obtain clinical control and reduce future risks to the patient. However, to date there is limited evidence on how to monitor patients with asthma. Childhood asthma introduces specific challenges in terms of deciding what, when, how often, by whom and in whom different assessments of asthma should be performed. The age of the child, the fluctuating course of asthma severity, variability in clinical presentation, exacerbations, comorbidities, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, and environmental exposures may all influence disease activity and, hence, monitoring strategies. These factors will be addressed in herein.
We identified large knowledge gaps in the effects of different monitoring strategies in children with asthma. Studies into monitoring strategies are urgently needed, preferably in collaborative paediatric studies across countries and healthcare systems.
Abstract
Monitoring asthma in children is essential for disease control and should reflect age, triggers and disease activity http://ow.ly/J0k7f
Footnotes
This is a supporting document of the ERS Task Force Monitoring Asthma in Children published in the European Respiratory Journal: Pijnenburg MW, Baraldi E, Brand PLP, et al. Monitoring asthma in children. Eur Respir J 2015; 45: 906–925.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside the online version of this article at err.ersjournals.com
Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed.
- Received May 14, 2014.
- Accepted July 11, 2014.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015.
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