title: Monitoring asthma in childhood: symptoms, exacerbations and quality of life.
abstract: Monitoring asthma in children in clinical practice is primarily performed by reviewing disease activity (daytime and night-time symptoms, use of reliever medication, exacerbations requiring frequent use of reliever medication and urgent visits to the healthcare professional) and the impact of the disease on children's daily activities, including sports and play, in a clinical interview. In such an interview, most task force members also discuss adherence to maintenance therapy and the patients' (and parents') views and beliefs on the goals of treatment and the amount of treatment required to achieve those goals. Composite asthma control and quality of life measures, although potentially useful in research, have limited value in clinical practice because they have a short recall window and do not cover the entire spectrum of asthma control. Telemonitoring of children with asthma cannot replace face-to-face follow-up and monitoring because there is no evidence that it is associated with improved health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Princess Amalia Children's Centre, Isala Hospital, Zwolle, The Netherlands UMCG Postgraduate School of Medicine, University Medical Centre and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands p.l.p.brand@isala.nl.
authors.forename: Paul L P
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.affiliation: Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Mika J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mäkelä
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Stanley J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Szefler
authors.affiliation: Dept of Paediatrics and Paediatric Surgery, Wilhelminenspital, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frischer
authors.affiliation: Dept of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, Academic Primary Care, Division of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008168:Lung / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents