Experts believe that giving better advice could avoid emergency hospital visits for asthma.
A team looked at the evidence on educating young patients and their parents about how to manage asthma. They identified 38 trials involving 7,843 children.
The trials used a variety of advice given by doctors or nurses in hospital, homes or community centres. Advice included: showing patients how to monitor their breathing, teaching them the importance of responding to early symptoms, and making environmental changes in the home such as removing allergens and asthma triggers.
Overall, the advice reduced the risk of emergency hospital visits by just over 25 per cent. It also led to fewer unscheduled doctor visits.
Dr Joseph Zorc of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA, helped carry out the review. He explained that hospitals are looking for effective methods to help prevent the expense and trauma of emergency treatment.
Dr Zorc said: "In addition to the high cost of treatment in a hospital setting, asthma emergencies can have a very disruptive effect on the quality of life for the child and their entire family. Emergency visits are also a marker of poorly controlled chronic asthma that is a leading cause of childhood disability and missed school."
Researcher Dr Vincent Wang added: "Most patients who have more than intermittent symptoms require a controller medication and a rescue medication. With a treatment plan, asthma can be controlled and life-threatening exacerbations can be limited."
The team write in the current issue of The Cochrane Library that wider use of asthma plans could lead to significantly fewer hospitalisations.
Boyd, M. et al. Interventions for educating children who are at risk for asthma-related emergency department attendance. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 2.
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