What is believed to be the first quality improvement initiative focusing exclusively on asthmatic teenagers - conducted by researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio - has reported significant improvements in asthma outcomes.
Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood, affecting 9% of all children (approximately 7 million children in total) in the US. Statistics suggest that 10.5 million school days are missed each year due to asthma.
There is no cure for asthma, and severe asthma attacks can be fatal, so it is important for people with asthma to take an active role in managing their condition.
Self-management involves avoiding anything that triggers asthma, without that impeding on the patient's ability to stay physically active. People with asthma also need to work with their doctor to find medication that works for them and to treat any other conditions that could make their asthma worse.
In 2013, Medical News Today reported on a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology demonstrating five areas of quality of life that children and teenagers need to discuss with their parents and health care providers in order to successfully control their asthma. These include whether their asthma is stopping them from physical activity or from going to school, or whether their asthma is worse at home or outside.
Dr. Maria Britto, senior author of the new study and director of the Center for Innovation in Chronic Disease Care at Cincinnati Children's, says: "Improving asthma is particularly difficult for teenagers, whose adherence to treatment is often poor and outcomes worse than those of younger patients."
How did the new initiative improve asthma outcomes for teenagers?
Between 2007 and 2011, Dr. Britto and her colleagues trialled their new quality improvement initiative with 322 teenage primary care asthma patients, of which only 10% had well-controlled asthma.
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