Trial reportThe Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma2008
A prospective multicenter study of written action plans among emergency department patients with acute asthma.
Trial report in The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of LEARNS model-based health education on health literacy and self-management capabilities in patients with pneumoconiosis: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Are there differences in the treatment information received to support guided self-management between asthma and allergy patients?: A community pharmacy survey in Finland.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2021Article
- Comparing Written Versus Pictorial Asthma Action Plans to Improve Asthma Management and Health Outcomes Among Children and Adolescents: Protocol of a Pilot and Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2019Article
- Enablers and determinants of the provision of written action plans to patients with asthma: a stratified survey of Canadian physicians.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2017Article
- Action plans in patients presenting to emergency departments with asthma exacerbations: Frequency of use and description of contents.Canadian respiratory journalArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe prevalence of written "action plans" (APs) among emergency department (ED) patients with acute asthma is unknown.
objectiveTo determine the prevalence of APs among ED patients, to describe the demographic and clinical profile of patients with and without APs, and to examine the appropriateness of response to an asthma exacerbation scenario.
methodsUsing a standard protocol, 49 North American EDs performed a prospective cohort study involving interviews of 1,756 patients, ages 2-54, with acute asthma. Among children only, a random sample was contacted two years after the index ED visit to assess current AP status and parents' self-management knowledge.
resultsThe overall prevalence of APs was 32% (95% confidence interval [CI], 30%-34%), and was higher among children than adults (34% vs. 26%, respectively; p = 0.001). Patients with APs had worse measures of chronic asthma severity (p < 0.05) and were more likely to be hospitalized (multivariate odds ratio, 1.5; 95%CI, 1.1-2.1). After 2 years, most children with an AP at the index ED visit still had one but only 20% of those without an AP had obtained one; moreover, many of the APs appeared inadequate. Parents of children with a current AP performed slightly better on the asthma scenario, but both groups overestimated their asthma knowledge.
conclusionThe prevalence of APs among ED patients with acute asthma is unacceptably low, and many of these APs appear inadequate. "Confounding by severity" will complicate any non-randomized analysis of the potential impact of APs on asthma outcomes in ED patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.