Data indicate that many children with asthma have poorly controlled disease due to poor adherence with inhaled corticosteroids. To determine if an intervention can overcome this barrier, investigators administered a simplified schedule of daily budesonide inhaler for prophylaxis and salbutamol inhaler for exacerbations to children aged 5-12 with persistent asthma. All were offered a multi-dimensional intervention program centered around asthma education and counseling and followed for 3 months by telephone, daily diary keeping, a self-action plan, lifestyle modification, clinical evaluations, and dose counter and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) recordings. At 3 months, significant improvements were seen in symptom relief (83%), functioning at school and play (80%), implementing preventive measures (81%) and lifestyle modification (86%), correct inhaler spacer usage (90%), and achieving mediocre-good quality of life (48% & 43, respectively). Adherence rates improved significantly, from 33.66% to 81.66%. Mean PEFR increased significantly, from 124.83 L/min to 218.33 L/min, mean number of exacerbations decreased from 6.92 to 1.93, mean number of hospitalizations reduced from 1.82 to 0.18, and mean school absences dropped from 9.33 days to 2.4 days.
