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Evidence summaries

Interventions for Educating Children Who are at Risk of Asthma-Related Emergency Department Attendance

Educational intervention for children and/or their families who have attended the emergency department for asthma appears to decrease the need for future emergency department visits and hospital admissions. Level of evidence: "B"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 38 studies with a total of 7 843 subjects. Educational intervention delivered to children, their parents or both, reduced the risk of subsequent emergency department visits (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.81, I2 55%; 17 studies, n=3008) and hospital admissions (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.92, I2 62%; 18 studies, n=4019) compared with control. There were also fewer unscheduled doctor visits (RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.81, I2 64%; 7 studies, n=1009). Very few data were available for other markers of asthma morbidity such as quality of life, symptoms and lung function and there was no statistically significant difference between education and control.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (inadequate or unclear allocation concealment).

References

  • Boyd M, Lasserson TJ, McKean MC, Gibson PG, Ducharme FM, Haby M. Interventions for educating children who are at risk of asthma-related emergency department attendance. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD001290. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords