BMJ 1995;311:260 (22 July)

Letters

Treatment of childhood asthma

EDITOR,--The study of Fiona Bryce and colleagues is elegantly designed to test the effects of an audit facilitator on treatment and diagnosis of childhood asthma by randomising within practices.1

It is a pity, however, given the large number of time related significant changes in treatment found for both intervention and control groups, that the study did not have a control group of children from practices where no intervention was made. This would better confirm the conclusion that intervention increased the likelihood of diagnosis of childhood asthma and planned review but did not make major changes in treatment. From the evidence presented, time related changes for both groups (decrease in use of oral bronchodilators, theophyllines, antibiotics, and cough linctus; increase in inhaled and oral steroids) suggest that practice prescribing was also influenced for children in the control group. In support of the conclusion that practices were changing habits at this time, . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Controlled trial of an audit facilitator in diagnosis and treatment of childhood asthma in general practice
Fiona P Bryce, Ronald G Neville, Iain K Crombie, Roland A Clark, and Pamela McKenzie
BMJ 1995 310: 838-842. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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