Abstract
Aims:
To investigate the asthma-related morbidity and the reasons for discontinuation of asthma care in children who had been diagnosed as having asthma but who had discontinued asthma treatment and care in a UK general practice.
Methods:
A postal questionnaire was sent to the households of all children aged 15 or less with a diagnosis of asthma who had neither received a prescription for asthma related medication nor consulted a doctor or a nurse with an asthma related problem in the previous 12 months.
Results:
Two hundred children from a base population of 1306 had received a diagnosis of asthma (15.3%). Of these, 88 had received no prescribed medication or asthma follow-up in the last year (44.0% of labelled asthmatics, 6.7% of base population). Sixty six questionnaires were returned (response rate 75.0%). Twenty respondents (30.3%) did not agree with the previous diagnosis of asthma, and a further 11 (16.7%) were unsure. Of these who agreed with the previous diagnosis of asthma, 41.3% felt that the condition had now resolved, and a further 37.0% were unsure. Over half felt that their child's symptoms were now too mild to warrant treatment. Very low levels of unease about previous medication (1.5%), lack of efficacy of prescribed medication (1.5%) or use of non-prescribed remedies (9.1%) were reported. Current asthma related morbidity was low; most respondents reported symptom frequency as ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ for cough (89.4%), wheeze (100%), chest tightness (97.0%) or shortness of breath (95.4%).
Conclusions:
A high proportion of children labelled as having asthma were not receiving current treatment or follow-up for it. Under a third of families rejected the previous diagnosis of asthma, and 40% of those who accepted the previous diagnosis of asthma felt that it had now resolved. Over half felt that current symptoms were too mild to warrant treatment. The majority of children not attending for asthma follow-up were not currently in need of it.
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Thomas, M. Childhood asthma: A general practice survey of children not attending for follow-up. Prim Care Respir J 9, 59–63 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/pcrj.2000.22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pcrj.2000.22