Breathing by example

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, affecting 1 in 11 children in the UK. Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) form the foundation of asthma management, with well-controlled asthma associated with little or no need for short-acting bronchodilators (ie, salbutamol).1 Research consistently highlights that non-adherence to preventer inhalers is associated with poor outcomes1; the number of ICS canisters used per year is inversely related to the rate of death due to asthma.2 When searching the internet for photos of children issuing inhalers, search engine results almost exclusively depict a salbutamol inhaler attached to a spacer, or worse, some without a spacer at all. We encourage our patients to adhere to regular ICS maintenance therapy (reserving the salbutamol inhaler for use as a rescue medication only), yet the photo resources available normalise the regular use of salbutamol in isolation. Furthermore, the National Institute for...
Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research