PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Paul L.P. Brand AU - Mika J. Mäkelä AU - Stanley J. Szefler AU - Thomas Frischer AU - David Price TI - Monitoring asthma in childhood: symptoms, exacerbations and quality of life AID - 10.1183/16000617.00003614 DP - 2015 Jun 01 TA - European Respiratory Review PG - 187--193 VI - 24 IP - 136 4099 - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/24/136/187.short 4100 - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/24/136/187.full SO - EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY REVIEW2015 Jun 01; 24 AB - Monitoring asthma in children in clinical practice is primarily performed by reviewing disease activity (daytime and night-time symptoms, use of reliever medication, exacerbations requiring frequent use of reliever medication and urgent visits to the healthcare professional) and the impact of the disease on children's daily activities, including sports and play, in a clinical interview. In such an interview, most task force members also discuss adherence to maintenance therapy and the patients' (and parents') views and beliefs on the goals of treatment and the amount of treatment required to achieve those goals. Composite asthma control and quality of life measures, although potentially useful in research, have limited value in clinical practice because they have a short recall window and do not cover the entire spectrum of asthma control. Telemonitoring of children with asthma cannot replace face-to-face follow-up and monitoring because there is no evidence that it is associated with improved health outcomes. To monitor asthma control in children interviewing the child and parents is preferred over composite control scores http://ow.ly/JbqnR