Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2005
Targeted routine asthma care in general practice using telephone triage.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of telehealth care on escalation to emergency care: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of telemedicine and telecare · 2025Pooled it
- Delivery of supported self-management in remote asthma reviews: A systematic rapid realist review.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic meta-review of supported self-management for asthma: a healthcare perspective.BMC medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Training interventions for improving telephone consultation skills in clinicians.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Home telemonitoring and remote feedback between clinic visits for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Remote versus face-to-face check-ups for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Telehealthcare for asthma: a Cochrane review.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2011Pooled it
- Telehealthcare for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2010Pooled it
- Preference for and impact of telehealth vs in-person asthma visits among Black and Latinx adults.Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology · 2023Trial
- Accessibility, clinical effectiveness, and practice costs of providing a telephone option for routine asthma reviews: phase IV controlled implementation study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2007Trial
- The Use of Triage in Primary Care in the UK: An Integrative Review and Narrative Synthesis.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Review
- Uses of Virtual Care in Primary Care: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Telemedicine and virtual respiratory care in the era of COVID-19.ERJ open research · 2022Review
- Review of Systematic Reviews in the Field of Telemedicine.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2021Article
- Assessing patient safety in a pediatric telemedicine setting: a multi-methods study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2020Article
- Continuing discrepancy between patient perception of asthma control and real-world symptoms: a quantitative online survey of 1,083 adults with asthma from the UK.Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group · 2013Article
- Clinical implications of the Royal College of Physicians three questions in routine asthma care: a real-life validation study.Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group · 2012Article
- Asthma in the elderly: Current understanding and future research needs--a report of a National Institute on Aging (NIA) workshop.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2011Article
- How usual is usual care in pragmatic intervention studies in primary care? An overview of recent trials.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2010Article
- Patient safety and telephone medicine : some lessons from closed claim case review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is a high non-attendance rate for traditional clinic-based routine asthma care in general practice. Alternative methods of providing routine asthma care need to be examined.
aimTo examine the cost and effectiveness of targeted routine asthma care in general practice using telephone triage, compared to usual clinic care. DESIGN OF STUDY: An open randomised controlled trial.
settingA single semi-rural practice in the southwest of England.
methodAdult patients with asthma were randomised to receive either their routine asthma care in the surgery or care by telephone triage. Asthma control parameters, health status and NHS resource utilisation were measured over the 12-month study period.
resultsOne hundred and ninety-four patients were randomised and 35% per cent more patients (n = 84 versus n = 62) received more than one consultation in the telephone group. Asthma control as measured by the asthma control questionnaire (ACQ) was similar in the clinic and telephone groups: mean change in ACQ = -0.11 (95% CI = -0.32 to 0.11) versus -0.18 (95% CI = -0.38 to 0.02). Mean NHS costs were 210 pounds sterling per patient per year in the telephone group compared to 334 pounds sterling in the clinic group (P-value of bootstrapped difference = 0.071).
conclusionTargeted routine asthma care by telephone triage of adult asthmatics can lead to more asthma patients being reviewed, at less cost per patient and without loss of asthma control compared to usual routine care in the surgery.
Indexed as
Identifiers
16378560PMC1570530W2108747781What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.