A Survey on Awareness and Utilization of New Asthma Management Guidelines in Japan

Abstract

The present questionnaire survey, designed to interview Japanese internists and pediatricians who were specialists or nonspecialists in allergy or asthma, was conducted to determine the acceptance of "Asthma Prevention and Management Guidelines 1998" 1 year after release. The surveyor visited each physician and used the questionnaire form at the interview. Replies were obtained from a total of 5,963 physicians. The percentage of physicians who were aware of the guidelines was 96% among specialists and 68% among nonspecialists. Among the internists who were aware of the guidelines, the percentage of physicians giving a reply of "I refer to them often" or "I refer to them" in the actual diagnosis and management of asthma was 95% among specialists and 92% among nonspecialists. Therefore, reference was very high. Except for nonspecialists among pediatricians, not less than 60% of physicians expected that propagation of the present guidelines would allow a further decrease in asthma death and further improvement of patient's quality of life. The present survey revealed an increase in guideline awareness over the last several years, which was especially marked in nonspecialists. Furthermore, high reference and high expectancy also verified that physicians recognize the contents of the present guidelines as appropriate.

Prevalence and impact of rhinitis in asthma. SACRA, a cross-sectional nation-wide study in Japan

“…The diagnosis of asthma was made according to the Japanese guidelines (16). These guidelines have been used by the vast majority of physicians in Japan for the past 15 years (23) and have been frequently updated. However, it is possible that, after 60 years of age, some COPD patients may have been diagnosed as asthmatics (24).…”

Categorizing Asthma Severity: An Overview of National Guidelines

“…Unfortunately, despite extensive efforts to disseminate these guidelines, surveys and database evaluations consistently show that current asthma care around the world fails to adhere to the recommendations of these guidelines. [72][73][74] These observations are disturbing because underassessment of asthma severity results in ineffective treatment and suboptimal outcomes. 75,76 Even though the recommended approaches for asthma severity categorization suffer from various methodologic flaws, management of asthma patients according to these guidelines would still result in improved care.…”

Fc RI-mediated thymic stromal lymphopoietin production by interleukin-4-primed human mast cells

“…In total, 16 asthmatic subjects (10 requiring step-2 asthma management, four requiring step-3 asthma management, and two requiring step-4 asthma management), in whom the disease severity was judged based on a combination of the severity of asthma symptoms and the frequency of occurrence of the symptoms, according to the criteria of the Japanese Society of Allergology (Tokyo) [19], and 11 healthy controls without asthma were studied. The demographic characteristics of the asthmatic subjects and healthy controls are shown in table 1.…”