Nurse Versus Physician-Led Care for the Management of Asthma

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 5 studies with a total of 588 subjects. The studies included children and adults with mostly controlled or partly controlled asthma. Two studies were performed in primary care, 2 in hospitals and 1 study combined primary and hospital care. The studies were performed in the Netherlands, UK and Australia.

There was no significant difference between nurse-led care for patients with asthma compared to physician-led care in terms of quality of life (3 studies), symptom free days (1 study), patient satisfaction (1 study), quality of care (3 studies), use of rescue medication (2 studies), and hospital admission (4 studies). There was no statistically significant difference neither in the number of asthma exacerbations and asthma severity after six months to two years follow-up, nor quality of life between the groups in three trials on 380 subjects (SMD -0.03; 95% CI -0.23 to 0.17). Only one study had healthcare costs as an outcome parameter, and no statistical differences were found.

Date of latest search: 2012-08-30