Rapid Responses to:

PRIMARY CARE: Chris Griffiths, Gill Foster, Neil Barnes, Sandra Eldridge, Helen Tate, Shamoly Begum, Mo Wiggins, Carolyn Dawson, Anna Eleri Livingstone, Mike Chambers, Tim Coats, Roger Harris, and Gene S Feder Specialist nurse intervention to reduce unscheduled asthma care in a deprived multiethnic area: the east London randomised controlled trial for high risk asthma (ELECTRA) BMJ 2004; 328: 144 [Abstract] [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

The best management of asthma?

Terry Kemple   (23 January 2004)

The best management of asthma? 23 January 2004
Terry Kemple, GP Horfield Health Centre, Bristol BS7 9RR Send response to journal: Re: The best management of asthma?	An uninspired intervention, in a skewed sample of patients, giving an irrelevant outcome may not further our knowledge of the best management of asthma. This research demonstrates some classic weaknesses. An uncosted intervention that is not based on a theoretical model of physician or patient behaviour, more than half the patients in the target population are excluded before randomisation which limits its generalisability, a primary outcome that is a measure only of process and possibly unrelated to the patients health status. Asthma is an important illness which merits better published research. Competing interests: None declared