Evaluation of asthma control in primary care practice

Abstract

Asthma control in clinical trials achieves 25 to 68 %; it is significantly lower in real-life clinical practice. This study was designed as a prospective open study for evaluating asthma control in 104 asthmatic adults in primary care settings of Omsk city. The efficacy of treatment has being assessed during 6 months using the validated Russian version of ACT questionnaire; score < 20 was considered as uncontrolled asthma, 20–24 as a good control, and 25 as the full control. The patients received budesonide (Benacort), beclomethasone dipropionate (Beclasone ECO Ease Breathe), budesonide/formoterol (Symbicort), or fluticasone (Flixotide) as the basic therapy; 4 patients were treated with symptomatic therapy alone. Asthma control improved by 3 to 8 points in average while using inhaled steroids and by 1.25 points under the symptomatic treatment. Severe asthma patients failed to reach the control. Improvement in asthma control was similar for all basic medications. Abilities to further improvement in asthma control are thought to improve quality of management of asthma patients in primary care settings.