ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Despite international guidelines; asthma control is short of the goal in different parts of the world. The objective of this study was to assess control of asthma in patients older than 14 years at the Chest Clinic of Jimma University Specialized Hospital/JUSH; South West Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross sectional hospital based study was conducted on 234 physician diagnosed asthmatic patients attending the chest follow up clinic from June 01 to July 31; 2012. Asthma control was assessed using the GINA algorithm and the ACT questionnaire. Pulmonary function test was measured using a spirometer for 160 subjects. Data were cleared; entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16 and independent variables were assessed for association with the level of asthma control using bivariate and multinomial analyses. RESULTS: Using the GINA based algorithm; 42 respondents (26.2) were considered to have partly controlled asthma and the majority 117 (76.1) had uncontrolled asthma. Asthma was uncontrolled (ACT score 19) in 71.4 subjects and well controlled (ACT score