The evaluation of asthma control by pulmonologists: Preliminary results

Abstract

The target of asthma treatment is full control according to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria. Asthma Control Test (ACT) has also been recommended as a useful tool besides of GINA. There is not enough available data about the implementation of control criteria by pulmonologists in daily routine practice in our country and world. We aimed to evaluate the utilization of control criteria regarding GINA and ACT by pulmonologists. The questionnaire included data regarding age, gender, hospitals/regions, questioning the patients9 control status, GINA/ACT choice, the preference among GINA and ACT questions, control records, evaluation time, and if the survey caused awareness of asthma control evaluation for the physician. 286 pulmonologists filled the questionnaire (F:183/M:103), Majority of the physicians (78.37%) have been working in training and research hospitals. While 49.30% of the pulmonologists were evaluating the control status of all patients, 30.42 % of them were using GINA criteria, 7.62% ACT and 39.86% preferred both. Control status was recorded by 18.4 % of the physicians and 36.3%, and 37.02% of the participants stated that the questionnaire caused complete and partial awareness of asthma control questioning, respectively. We showed that GINA criteria were used more frequently than asthma control test by pulmonologists. Implementation of all questions of GINA was proportionally higher than ACT steps. Although there was no systematical approach to evaluate asthma control status by the pulmonologists, most of them were asking the frequency of day and night symptoms.