Evaluation of asthma management from the surveys in 30 provinces of China in 2015-2016 / 中华内科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the general level of asthma management in urban areas of China and further promote the national asthma management plan. Methods A multi-center, cross-sectional survey was carried out in 30 provinces of China (except for Tibet) during Oct 2015 to May 2016. It's a questionnaire-based face-to-face survey which included asthma management using peak flow meter (PFM) and pulmonary function test,medication choice of maintenance therapy and asthma education.Results A total of 3 875 asthmatic outpatients were recruited including 2 347(60.6%)females and 1 528(39.4%)males. The mean age was(50.7±16.7)years ranging from 14 to 99.Only 10.1%(388/3 837)patients used PFM as monitoring, whereas 62.1%(2 405/3 874) patients underwent pulmonary function test during the past year. There were 57.4%(2 226/3 875) patients treated with inhaled cortical steroid plus long-acting β2-agonist combinations (ICS+LABA) as daily medication. 43.3%(1 661/3 836) patients were followed up by physicians. Among this population, 1 362 asthmatic outpatients were recruited, who also took part in the asthma control survey in 2007-2008 in 10 cities.In this subgroup,17.9%(244/1 360)were tested by PFM and 66.6%(907/1 362)by pulmonary function test during last year.As to the medication,63.1%(860/1 362) selected ICS+LABA for daily control. There were 50.4%(685/1 359) patients in the follow-up cohort by physicians.Compared to the similar survey conducted in 2007-2008,the proportion of patients with ICS+LABA regimen and follow-up by physicians were markedly higher,while the rate of PFM use did not have significant improvement. Conclusion Although the present level of asthma management in China is still far from ideal, asthma management has improved compared to 8 years ago. Yet the use of PFM does not significantly improve.Asthma action plan and application of PFM should be further promoted to improve the level of asthma management.