Pragmatic trials: how to adjust for the ‘Hawthorne effect’?
- 1Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 424 General Military Training Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
- 2Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Immunology Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA
- Correspondence to Dr George N Konstantinou, Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 424 General Military Training Hospital, 21 Sirou Str, Thessaloniki, Greece; gnkonstantinou{at}gmail.com
- Accepted 14 July 2011
- Published Online First 23 August 2011
- Allergic lung disease
- asthma
- asthma epidemiology
- asthma guidelines
- asthma in primary care
- drug reactions
- paediatric asthma
Hashimoto et al1 have conducted an interesting study to offer a practical and pragmatic insight into steroid-dependent asthma therapeutics in real-world practice. They proposed a strategy based on internet monitoring of objective (spirometry and fraction of exhaled nitric oxide) and subjective (asthma control and asthma-related quality of life questionnaires) measurements to adjust the dose of oral corticosteroids in patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma. However, how ‘pragmatic’ is …
