These guidelines have been replaced by British Guideline on the Management of Asthma. A national clinical guideline. Superseded By 2012 Revision Of 2008 Guideline: British Guideline on the Management of Asthma. Thorax 2008 May; 63(Suppl 4): 1–121.

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British guideline on the management of asthma: A national clinical guideline

OBJECTIVE--To describe the frequency and characteristics of asthma attacks in the United Kingdom and to compare actual management with recommended guidelines for the management of attacks. DESIGN--Correspondence survey. SETTING--218 general practices in the United Kingdom. SUBJECTS--1775 patients of all ages who had a total of 1805 asthma attacks over three months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Patient characteristics, place of management of attacks, comparison of actual management with recommended guidelines. RESULTS--Of the 1805 attacks, 300 occurred in boys aged 0-9, 144 in girls aged 0-9, and 118 in women aged 20-29. The estimated frequency of attacks in the community was 14.3 per 1000 patients per year. 1546 (86%) patients with attacks were managed within general practice, 225 (12%) were admitted to hospital, and 34 (2%) were discharged from an accident and emergency department. Two patients died. On initial presentation, 248 (14%) patients were "not breathless," 900 (50%) were "moderately breathless," 535 (30%) were "breathless and distressed," 68 (4%) were "too breathless to talk," and 2 were "moribund." Recording of clinical data was variable. Underuse of nebulised bronchodilators and systemic steroid was apparent in all grades of clinical severity. Contrary to current guidelines for asthma management, "step up" in maintenance therapy after an attack was often not practised. CONCLUSION--Reported management was at variance with recommended guidelines. This has major implications for the design and distribution of future guidelines.

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/306/6877/559.full.pdf

National asthma attack audit 1991-2. General Practitioners in Asthma Group.

Adherence to asthma practice guidelines is low. Improved compliance could potentially improve care of patients with asthma. The purpose of this study was to determine if patients managed in a general practice with an associated asthma clinic are more likely to use asthma medications according to clinical practice guidelines than patients managed in the general surgery of the practice. A cross-sectional study of adult asthmatics, aged 18-55 years, was conducted in six British general practices. Prescription data on all asthma medication was collected for a 6-month period. Information on asthma clinic attendance, age, sex, employment status, other medical illness, and how patients used their inhaled beta2-agonist was collected through questionnaire. The prescription data for asthma medication and patient use of inhaled beta2-agonist were compared to the British Thoracic Society's (BTS) Guidelines for Management of Asthma in Adults to determine if the patient's asthma medication regimen was appropriate. There was no significant association found between appropriate asthma medication and asthma clinic attendance or other patient characteristics. Adherence to the BTS guidelines was low. Fifty-eight percent of the asthma patients used asthma medication regimens that were not consistent with the BTS guidelines published 1 year earlier. Adherence to the BTS guidelines was low regardless of patient characteristics, including asthma clinic attendance, age, sex, employment status, other medical illness, or individual practice. These findings underscore the need to document the utility of clinical practice guidelines which may improve physician compliance.

Adherence to asthma guidelines in general practices.

OBJECTIVE--To review current knowledge of the effectiveness of medical audit programmes as a whole and of specific interventions within these programmes, as a means of changing clinical behaviour. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION OF PUBLISHED REPORTS--Articles listed on Medline from 1985-92 with key words "quality assurance" or "medical audit", and "evaluation" and relevant references from these articles, and from recently published reviews and reports on medical audit, were included. Excluded were simple descriptions of audit activity, replications of previous work, and publication in a language other than English. RESULTS--Evaluation of entire programmes of medical audit is unusual. Most reports concern specific interventions and focus particularly on the scientific and technical aspects of quality. These interventions may be classified by the means through which they attempt to achieve desired changes: patient characteristics; physician characteristics; administrative and organisational structures; and financial incentives. CONCLUSIONS--Knowledge about effective methods of bringing about specific changes in clinical behaviour is rudimentary. Impact is highly dependent on local factors, so generalisation of results to other settings is difficult. More qualitative research is needed to define the local factors which influence results.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/48/5/435.full.pdf

Evaluation of medical audit.

BACKGROUND: The management of asthma attacks by general practitioners in 1992/93 was compared with 1991/92 in relation to recommended guidelines. METHODS: The findings from a postal survey of 299 UK general practitioners who managed 2332 patients with an asthma attack in 1992/93 were compared with those from 218 practitioners who managed 1805 attacks in 1991/92. Management by a subgroup of practitioners from a special interest group was analysed separately. RESULTS: In 1992/93 2031 (87%) of attacks were managed entirely by general practitioners, 251 (11%) were referred for admission to hospital, and 50 (2%) were managed by an accident and emergency department. There was no change in the pattern of management relative to 1991/92. Compared with recommended guidelines there was underuse of systemic steroids and nebulised bronchodilators. Between 1991/92 and 1992/93 use of systemic steroids in acute attacks increased from 56% to 71%, nebulised bronchodilators from 31% to 32%, and an increase in prophylactic medication after an acute attack from 41% to 49%. Contrary to guidelines, antibiotic use increased from 32% to 40% of attacks. Practitioners from a special interest asthma group gave more of their patients systemic steroids and nebulised bronchodilators both in 1991/92 and 1992/93. CONCLUSIONS: Some aspects of the management of asthma attacks by general practitioners has changed in line with guidelines, but there is still a large gap between actual and recommended management.

https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/52/2/153.full.pdf

How general practitioners manage acute asthma attacks.

OBJECTIVES--To design an audit questionnaire and pilot its use by an audit assistant to monitor inpatient management of acute asthma and to compare the care given by chest physicians and general physicians. DESIGN--Retrospective review by a chest physician and audit assistant of a random sample of 76 case records of patients by a criterion based questionnaire developed from hospital guidelines on management of acute asthma. SETTING--One district general hospital. PATIENTS--76 adult patients with acute asthma: 38 admitted with a relevant primary diagnosis between April 1988 and March 1989 and a further 38 admitted through the accident and emergency department between April 1989 and March 1990. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Conformity with recognised standards for assessment and management of acute asthma before and after the audit and by chest physicians and general physicians. RESULTS--Age and sex did not differ significantly between the different groups of patients. Overall, deviations from the guidelines occurred in recording measures of severity of asthma, emergency treatment with beta 2 agonists (60/76, 79%) and steroids (43/76, 57%), and prescription of antibiotics in accordance with at least one criterion of the guidelines (29/45, 64%). Chest physicians were more rigorous than general physicians in recording severity measures, especially serum potassium concentration (chi 2 = 3.6, df = 1, p = 0.06), emergency steroid treatment within the correct period (chi 2 = 3.9, df = 1, p = 0.05), and referral for follow up at an outpatient chest clinic. Recording of arterial blood gas tensions improved significantly between the 1988-9 and 1989-90 samples (chi 2 = 7.0, df = 1, p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS--The questionnaire proved easy to use for both doctor and audit assistant. The audit improved few standards of care and emphasises the need for further reinforcement and feedback.

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/302/6790/1440.full.pdf

J Gabbay

Papers

Use of a guideline based questionnaire to audit hospital care of acute asthma.