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To help ensure asthma control is achieved and maintained, the NHLBI guidelines call for several actions related to ongoing monitoring of asthma. These include: regular follow-up visits to a healthcare professional, spirometry to assess lung function, long-term peak flow monitoring on a daily basis for patients with moderate or severe asthma and a written Asthma Action Plan developed with their healthcare professional. Children and Asthma in America suggests many of these recommendations are not being followed.
- One-quarter of children with asthma (25%) had no visits to the doctor about their asthma in the past 12 months; almost one in five (18%) had only one visit to the doctor about their asthma in the past 12 months; consequently, close to half (43%) of children with asthma did not have the recommended two doctor visits for their asthma in the past 12 months (Figure 17)
- More than half (54%) of all respondents had not had a lung function test in the past year (Figure 18)
- While more than one-third of those children whose symptoms in the past four weeks were considered moderate (37%) or severe (38%) reported having a peak flow meter (Figure 19), 80% did not use it on a daily basis and 10% never used it (Figure 20)
- More than half of children with asthma (54%) did not have a written Asthma Action Plan (Figure 21)
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