title: Common lung conditions: asthma.
abstract: Asthma is a common respiratory disease that leads to school and work absenteeism, office and emergency department visits, hospitalization, and mortality. Dyspnea and wheezing are caused by airway inflammation. Asthma severity scores are used to predict the risk of exacerbations. Severity assessment instruments include questions about daytime and nighttime symptoms, use of short-acting beta2-agonists, and the effect of symptoms on daily activities. The 4 components of effective asthma management are monitoring, education, control of environmental factors, and pharmacotherapy. Several national quality measures are used to measure asthma care. The National Healthcare Quality & Disparities reports measure use of drugs, routine examinations, smoking cessation, influenza vaccination, emergency department visits, and urgent ambulatory visits. Electronic health records can be used to create asthma registries to identify patients who are at higher risk of exacerbations. Interventions that have been shown to improve asthma outcomes include asthma self-management and education, risk stratification of asthma patients, and improvement of drug adherence. Providing asthma education for patients and family members has been shown to decrease hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas School of Medicine, 3901 Rainbow Blvd Mailstop 4010, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. jdelzell@kumc.edu
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Delzell
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D018450:Disease Progression; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution