EDITOR—Premaratne et al's study highlights the difficulties encountered in implementing the British Thoracic Society's guidelines for asthma in Greenwich,1 an inner city area which has a high incidence of urban deprivation with all its attendant problems known to have an impact on asthma and quality of life.2

When this study took place there was an explosion of asthma education for practice nurses, and it would have been useful to compare asthma knowledge and services within the control and intervention groups. The authors …