ArticleBMJ open2017
Risks associated with managing asthma without a preventer: urgent healthcare, poor asthma control and over-the-counter reliever use in a cross-sectional population survey.
Article in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- Remote monitoring in asthma: a systematic review.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Pooled it
- Objective detection of wheeze at home by parents through a digital device: usage patterns and relationship with SABA administration.Pediatric pulmonology · 2025Trial
- Positioning As-needed Budesonide-Formoterol for Mild Asthma: Effect of Prestudy Treatment in Pooled Analysis of SYGMA 1 and 2.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2021Trial
- Emerging Therapeutic Strategies in Asthma: Advances in Treatment, Drug Delivery, Drug Adherence, and Disease Management.Current allergy and asthma reports · 2026Review
- Optimising long-term management in acute asthma presentations to the emergency department: an interview study on patient beliefs.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- The present and future of digital health, digital medicine, and digital therapeutics for allergic diseases.Clinical and translational allergy · 2025Review
- Perceptions, practices, and experiences of asthma patients and community pharmacists on short-acting beta-2 agonists inhaler use: A qualitative study.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- The use of precision medicine for asthma.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Over-the-counter short-acting βNPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2024Article
- Economic burden of short-acting beta-2 agonist (SABA) overuse among asthma patients in Türkiye: a cost analysis with respect to the updated GINA treatment recommendations.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Comparison and review of international guidelines for treating asthma in children.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2024Article
- Evaluating the Feasibility of a Community Pharmacy-Delivered Behaviour Change Intervention to Reduce Reliever Reliance in Asthma.Patient preference and adherence · 2024Article
- Overprescription of short-acting β2 agonists: reflections from the SABINA study in Brazil.Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisilogia · 2024Observational
- Risk Factors Associated with Asthma Control and Quality of Life in Patients with Mild Asthma Without Preventer Treatment, a Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2024Article
- Development and validation of the BMQ-AIRFrontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Over-the-Counter Bronchodilators Use Among Asthmatic Patients in Al-Medina Al-Monawwara.Cureus · 2024Article
- Over-the-counter use of short-acting beta-2 agonists: a systematic review.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023Review
- Clinical standards for the diagnosis and management of asthma in low- and middle-income countries.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2023Article
- Uncovering the Burden of Rhinitis in Patients Purchasing Nonprescription Short-Acting β-Agonist (SABA) in the Community.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Over-prescription of short-acting βBMC primary care · 2023Article
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 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesOveruse of asthma relievers, particularly without anti-inflammatory preventers, increases asthma risks. This study aimed to identify how many reliever-only users have urgent healthcare, explore their attitudes and beliefs about asthma and its treatment, and investigate whether purchasing over-the-counter relievers was associated with worse asthma outcomes than by prescription. DESIGN AND
settingCross-sectional population-based Internet survey in Australia.
participantsOf 2686 participants ≥16 years with current asthma randomly drawn from a web-based panel, 1038 (50.7% male) used only reliever medication.
main outcome measuresUrgent asthma-related healthcare; Asthma Control Test (ACT); patient attitudes about asthma and medications; reliever purchase (with/without prescription).
resultsOf 1038 reliever-only participants, 23.3% had required urgent healthcare for asthma in the previous year, and only 36.0% had a non-urgent asthma review. Those needing urgent healthcare were more likely than those without such events to be male (56.5% vs 49.0%, p=0.003) and current smokers (29.4% vs 23.3%, p=0.009). Only 30.6% had well-controlled asthma (ACT ≥20) compared with 71.0% of those with no urgent healthcare (p<0.0001), and 20.8% used relievers regularly to prevent asthma symptoms (vs 5.5% of those without urgent healthcare). Those with urgent healthcare were more frustrated by their asthma and less happy with how they managed it, and they were less confident about their ability to manage worsening asthma, but just as likely as those without urgent healthcare to manage worsening asthma themselves rather than visit a doctor. Reliever-only users purchasing over-the-counter relievers were no more likely than those purchasing relievers by prescription to have uncontrolled asthma (35.9% vs 40.6%, p=0.23) but were less likely to have had a non-urgent asthma review.
conclusionsOne-quarter of the reliever-only population had needed urgent asthma healthcare in the previous year, demonstrating the importance of identifying such patients. Their attitudes and beliefs suggest opportunities for targeting this population in the community.
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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.