The high burden of asthma on healthcare utilisation and costs warrants economic appraisal of management approaches. The authors previously demonstrated that the efficacy of nurse-led outpatient management of childhood asthma was comparable to management by a paediatrician and now report on the healthcare utilisation and costs of both management approaches. A total of 74 newly referred children ...

Nearly one in every thirteen children has asthma, making it the most common chronic condition in childhood. For a variety of biological and environmental reasons, the prevalence of childhood asthma has risen dramatically in the past 20 years, with disproportionate effects on low-income populations, minorities, and children living in inner cities. Much of the morbidity associated with childhood ...

Asthma affects 5-10% of children in developed countries. Despite the new insights into the diagnosis and management of asthma, the morbidity and mortality have shown an increase over the last decade. This is largely attributed to the delay in recognising the severity of the illness and prompt alterations in therapeutic regimen. There is no data available on the incidence of asthma in Pakistani ...

interleukin-12 (il-12) is a key cytokine involved in regulating the balance between th1 and th2 cells by promoting th1 response. a reduced capacity to produce this cytokine could lead to aberrant th2 development. on the same aspect significant impact of il-12 on invariant natural killer t (inkt) cells was reported. therefore, we examined the serum levels of il-12 and the absolute number of peri...

Past studies have demonstrated an association between maternal depression and poor management of pediatric asthma. Using an instrumental variables strategy to address the endogeneity of depression treatment, I build on this literature to answer the question of whether treating maternal depression leads to an improvement in pediatric asthma management. I show that treatment of mother's depressio...

Asthma continues to be recognized as a well-known respiratory disease requiring complex management. Asthma is assessed and treated by clinicians across the continuum. The interest in evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management is ongoing and essential for aligning clinical practice with its changes. The purpose of this review is to provide updates from rece...

BACKGROUND Treatment decisions in asthma are based on assessments of symptoms and simple measures of lung function, which do not relate closely to underlying eosinophilic airway inflammation. We aimed to assess whether a management strategy that minimises eosinophilic inflammation reduces asthma exacerbations compared with a standard management strategy. METHODS We recruited 74 patients with ...

BACKGROUND The economic burden of pediatric asthma is substantial, with national annual health care costs of $3 billion. Successful clinical management of asthma in children has the potential to decrease this burden by lowering the disproportionate costs of hospitalization and acute care for pediatric asthma patients. RESULTS Based on increased understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma, rev...

BACKGROUND Asthma is one of the most prevalent childhood chronic illnesses in the United States leading to nearly 190,000 pediatric hospitalizations yearly. In response to the increasing number of children with asthma being hospitalized, some institutions have developed and implemented clinical pathways and are now reporting their findings in the literature. The purpose of this paper was to con...

INTRODUCTION Previous studies have demonstrated an association of low socioeconomic status with frequent asthma exacerbations. However, there have been no recent multicenter efforts to examine the relationship of insurance status - a proxy for socioeconomic status - with asthma severity and management in adults. The objective is to investigate chronic and acute asthma management disparities by ...