title: Asthma in the elderly: what we know and what we have yet to know.
abstract: In the past, asthma was considered mainly as a childhood disease. However, asthma is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly nowadays. In addition, the burden of asthma is more significant in the elderly than in their younger counterparts, particularly with regard to mortality, hospitalization, medical costs or health-related quality of life. Nevertheless, asthma in the elderly is still been underdiagnosed and undertreated. Therefore, it is an imperative task to recognize our current challenges and to set future directions. This project aims to review the current literature and identify unmet needs in the fields of research and practice for asthma in the elderly. This will enable us to find new research directions, propose new therapeutic strategies, and ultimately improve outcomes for elderly people with asthma. There are data to suggest that asthma in older adults is phenotypically different from young patients, with potential impact on the diagnosis, assessment and management in this population. The diagnosis of AIE in older populations relies on the same clinical findings and diagnostic tests used in younger populations, but the interpretation of the clinical data is more difficult. The challenge today is to encourage new research in AIE but to use the existing knowledge we have to make the diagnosis of AIE, educate the patient, develop a therapeutic approach to control the disease, and ultimately provide a better quality of life to our elderly patients.
authors.affiliation: Investigaciones en Alergia y Enfermedades Respiratorias- InAER, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Anahí
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yáñez
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Hoen
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Programa de Epidemiologia e Investigacion Clinica, Fundación Caubet-CIMERA, Illes Balears, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Soriano
authors.affiliation: Children's Mercy Hospital, University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine, Kansas City, Missoui, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lanny J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Rosenwasser
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Emergencia, Hospital Central de las Fuerzas Armadas, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Gustavo J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Rodrigo
authors.affiliation: Krankenhaus Lungen Clinic, Grosshansdorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Rabe
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology and Immunology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Niimi
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Morsani University of South Florida College of Medicine, James A Haley Veterans Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Dennis K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ledford
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy and Immunology, National Jewish Health, Denver, Colorado, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Katial
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Haematology, and Respiratory Diseases, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Children's Hospital of UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Juan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Celedón
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Diseases and Allergy, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio Walter
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Canonica
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Busse
authors.affiliation: Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, (Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, Laval University), Quebéc, Canada.
authors.forename: Louis-Phillippe
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Boulet
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Respiratory Medicine, Catholic University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Baena-Cagnani
authors.affiliation: Meakins-Christie Laboratories, McGill University, Quebéc, Canada.
authors.forename: Qutayba
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hamid
authors.affiliation: Upper Airways Research Laboratory (URL), Clinics ENT-Department, University Hospital Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bachert
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pawankar
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stephen T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Holgate