Primary care based clinics for asthma

Jones A, Fay JK, Ram FSF

Published Online:

October 7, 2009

It is not known whether primary care based asthma clinics are effective and what patients' views are on such clinics. A review of all published randomised controlled trials was undertaken assessing the effectiveness of such clinics. There is limited evidence from one study that has assessed the effectiveness of asthma clinics. This study shows that asthma clinics based in primary care can increase the provision of peak flow meters and reduce the number of patients who wake at night due to asthma. We believe that there is a need for further trials in order to assess the effectiveness of asthma clinics.

Abstract (click to read)

Background:

Primary care clinics for asthma have been encouraged and are becoming widespread in some countries, particularly in the UK.

Objectives:

To determine the effectiveness of organised asthma care via primary care based asthma clinics.

Search strategy:

A search of the Cochrane Airways Group register and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register using the following search strategy: clinic* OR general pract* OR family pract* or primary care. Separate and additional searches were also conducted using MEDLINE, CINAHL and EMBASE databases.

Selection criteria:

Trials had to be performed in primary care and be restricted to patients with asthma. Care could be delivered by doctor or nurse. Two reviewers independently ascertained the relevance of trials from titles and abstracts obtained from the searches. Relevant full text articles were retrieved with two reviewers assessing each study for inclusion.

Data collection and analysis:

Two reviewers independently conducted all data abstraction and analysis and all disagreements were resolved by discussion. For the dichotomous variables, odds ratio (OR) or relative risks (RR) with 95% Confidence Interval (95%CI) were calculated for individual outcomes.

Main results:

Only one trial met the criteria for inclusion in the review. This trial provided 11 outcome measures of which two showed a significant effect of the intervention. More patients in the intervention group had peak flow meters (RR 1.30; 95%CI 1.05,1.61) and fewer patients in the intervention group were likely to wake up at nights due to their asthma (RR 0.30; 95%CI 0.16, 0.81).

Authors' conclusions:

There is limited evidence of benefit for primary care based asthma clinics, but firm conclusions cannot be formed until more good quality trials have been carried out.

This record should be cited as:

Jones A, Fay JK, Ram FSF. Primary care based clinics for asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD003533. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003533

Assessed as up to date:

November 26, 2001

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Primary Review Group:

Airways Group

Asthma topics:

Living with Asthma > Disease Management

Health topics:

Lungs & airways > Asthma (chronic) > Delivery of care

Cochrane Summaries^beta

Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Primary care based clinics for asthma

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