Improving Outcomes for under 18-year-olds Requiring Inhalers with no Current Diagnosis of Asthma in Primary Care: Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Around 1.1 million children currently receive asthma treatment in the UK. Emergency admissions and deaths from asthma are largely preventable with improved management and monitoring. One of such gaps involves identifying those children who have no diagnosis yet build up a pattern of requiring multiple inhalers yearly. Children may present with wheezy episodes requiring either bronchodilator (reliever) therapy or in some cases inhaled corticosteroids (preventer) therapy. Over the years these children may go undiagnosed and unmonitored, placing them at a higher risk of mortality. Identifying these target at-risk groups will help us identify children who need consideration for an asthma diagnosis and are currently not being managed to standards. This will help as they can be adequately diagnosed, managed, and monitored.