Asthma management and prevention: current perspectives

Abstract

The continuing evolution of asthma treatment and prevention are reflected in updated guidelines from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program and Global Initiative for Asthma as well as other recent publications. The 2007 Expert Panel Report 3 guidelines designate severity and control, mediated by considerations of current impairment and future risk, as the primary concepts in assessing and monitoring asthma. Severity should ideally be determined at the time of diagnosis, after which control becomes the central focus of asthma management. In the area of treatment, inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) remain first-line therapy for long-term asthma management in children and adults. For patients whose severity of asthma requires more than low-dose ICSs, or whose asthma cannot be well controlled on monotherapy with low-dose ICSs, evidence supports the efficacy of combination therapy consisting of an ICS plus an inhaled long-acting beta(2)-agonist (LABA) or an increase to medium-dose ICSs. For children >5 years of age and adults not controlled on low-dose ICSs, the combination of a low-dose ICS plus an inhaled LABA is equivalent in terms of outcomes to the use of medium-dose ICS. For children <5 years of age not controlled on low-dose ICSs, increasing the dose of ICSs is preferred to the addition of a LABA to low-dose ICS therapy as no studies using combination therapy have been conducted for patients in this age group. With regard to asthma prevention, approaches to primary prevention (to avoid allergen sensitization) and secondary prevention (to avoid disease progression) are still very much in the developmental stage, while tertiary prevention (to avoid asthmatic stimuli) has been more successful particularly in pediatric patients. Written action plans as part of self-management processes appear to improve physician-patient communication and disease status tracking. Other considerations in successful asthma management include patient education and monitoring of adherence to treatment regimens.