The role of the primary care physician in helping adolescent and adult patients improve asthma control.

ABSTRACT: Many adolescents and adults with asthma continue to have poorly controlled disease, often attributable to poor adherence to asthma therapy. Failure to adhere to recommended treatment may result from a desire to avoid regular reliance on medications, inappropriate high tolerance of asthma symptoms, failure to perceive the chronic nature of asthma, and poor inhaler technique. Primary care physicians need to find opportunities and methods to address these and other issues related to poor asthma control. Few adolescents or adults with asthma currently have asthma "checkup" visits, usually seeking medical care only with an exacerbation. Therefore, nonrespiratory-related office visits represent an important opportunity to assess baseline asthma control and the factors that most commonly lead to

SUBMITTER: Yawn BP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3257999 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature