BACKGROUND Although patient education is a key step in the Australian Asthma Management Plan, its impact has not been assessed in a hospital outpatient asthma clinic. METHODS A controlled trial was undertaken in 125 adults with asthma recruited from the Alfred Hospital Asthma and Allergy Clinic and randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 64) or control (n = 61) group. Subjects in the inter...

Increasing emphasis on the assessment of asthma control and risk has renewed interest in the ability of technology to capture patient-reported outcomes and real-time histories of symptoms and medication use. Ambulatory monitoring of physiological parameters and medication use, together with online interfaces and applications which allow patients to complete composite questionnaires of asthma co...

A 6-month Maori community-based asthma self-management programme, involving a "credit card" asthma self-management plan, has previously been shown to be an effective and acceptable system for reducing asthma morbidity. The effectiveness of the asthma self-management programme and participants' self-management behaviour was assessed 6 yrs after the formal end of the programme. Participants were ...

Pregnancy may be complicated by new-onset or preexisting asthma and allergic rhinitis. This article reviews the recognition and management of asthma and allergic rhinitis during pregnancy, paying close attention to the general principles of allergy and use of asthma medication during pregnancy. Both allergic rhinitis and asthma can adversely affect both maternal quality of life and, in the case...

Variability is a characteristic feature of asthma, and the aim of asthma management is to eliminate or minimise disease variability. Controlled asthma shows little or no variability, and is achievable and sustainable in the majority of patients. New international guidelines recommend control-driven management rather than management based on disease severity. Good asthma control is associated wi...