Viewpoint
The introduction to this article reviews the reasons that preventive asthma care rates are so low. Children underreport or underassess their own asthma symptoms, and providers underestimate the severity of symptoms even when kids and parents describe them. When providers appropriately estimate asthma severity, they often undertreat (meaning that they are not aggressive enough in trying to reduce asthma symptoms). Follow-up care is insufficient after emergency department visits and hospitalizations, as it is after routine office visits. The end result of this cascade of underassessment and undertreatment is poorly treated asthma on a population-wide basis, despite the fact that most pediatric providers understand that asthma is both a high-morbidity and high-cost chronic medical condition. This study offers practical pointers for what practices could examine to see how well they are providing preventive care for asthma during ambulatory visits.
Abstract