Health care education, delivery, and qualityAsthma control in Europe: A real-world evaluation based on an international population-based study
Section snippets
Study design
The ECRHS8 is a multicenter study on the prevalence, determinants, and management of asthma performed in 48 centers during 1991 through 1993. The design of the survey involved 2 stages. In the first stage a screening questionnaire on respiratory symptoms was mailed to a community-based probability sample of 20- to 44-year-old persons. In the second stage a 20% random sample of responders to stage 1, with the addition of subjects who reported symptoms of waking with shortness of breath or asthma
Participants and nonparticipants
Of the 15,705 subjects participating in the ECRHS I from 25 centers, 9580 took part in the ECRHS II (response rate, 61%). Participants were slightly older than nonparticipants (median, 34 [interquartile range, 7] years vs 33 [interquartile range, 7] years; P < .001), and the proportion of subjects who reported that they were smokers in the ECRHS I was significantly smaller in subjects participating in the ECRHS II with respect to subjects not participating (36% vs 44%, P < .001).
Asthmatic sample
In the ECRHS II
Discussion
Our study showed that 85% of the European asthmatic adults from the ECRHS II who had used ICSs in the last 12 months were not able to achieve total control of the disease: 49% of them had uncontrolled asthma, and 36% had partly controlled asthma. Among those who had not used ICSs in the last 12 months, 18% had uncontrolled and 36% had partly controlled asthma. These results confirm the evidence that asthma control is suboptimal in a remarkable proportion of patients, according to previous
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The coordination of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey II was supported by the European Commission as part of their Quality of Life program.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.
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Deceased.