Do Written Asthma Action Plans Improve Outcomes?

Do Written Asthma Action Plans Improve Outcomes?

With appropriate management, children with asthma should expect few symptoms, no limits on activity, rare exacerbations, and normal lung function. Appropriate education of parents and other caregivers of children with asthma has clearly been shown to help achieve these goals. Although recommended in asthma guidelines, providing written asthma action plans does not improve outcomes beyond asthma...

Written asthma action plans.

T he first British guidelines for the management of asthma in adults published in 1990 clearly recommended self-management of asthma. The exact statement read: ‘‘As far as possible, patients should be trained to manage their own treatment rather than be required to consult their doctor before making changes’’. Similar advice has been repeated in subsequent revisions of the UK guidelines and in ...

Review: individualized written action plans based on peak expiratory flow improve asthma health outcomes.

Written action plans for asthma: an evidence-based review of the key components.

BACKGROUND Written action plans for asthma facilitate the early detection and treatment of an asthma exacerbation. Several versions of action plans have been published but the key components have not been determined. A study was undertaken to determine the impact of individual components of written action plans on asthma health outcomes. METHODS Randomised controlled trials (n=26) that evalua...

Written action plan use in inner-city children: is it independently associated with improved asthma outcomes?

BACKGROUND Guidelines from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program stipulate that multicomponent self-management interventions for asthma should include a written action plan (WAP). However the specific, independent effect of WAPs in improving outcomes remains unclear. OBJECTIVE To measure the association between WAP use during the previous year and improved asthma outcomes. ME...