Asthma Management: Allocating Duties

Background: Asthma is one of the major noncommunicable diseases. According to the latest WHO estimates released in December 2016, 235 million people currently suffer from asthma and there were 383 000 deaths due to asthma in 2015. Most asthma-related deaths occur in low- and lower-middle income countries. Asthma is a common disease among children. Objectives: Asthma care requires understanding how diagnose and assess it. The aim of this study is to analyze and discuss the different and various experience on the endeavours produced worldwide to overcome these problems, to comment on their results and highlight best management evidences with the pivotal role of respiratory physicians. Methods: extensive medline search of all relevant studies on “asthma management”, “asthma care”, “asthma primary care”, “asthma pharmacist”, “asthma nurse” and “asthma school”. Results: Despite a huge amount of new data on the disease, produced in last decades and in different settings, asthma management suffers a series of pitfalls that conveys to less than optimal care. Some examples of the persistence of incompletely resolved issues in asthma management are : 1) misdiagnosis - with the related complex consequences -, especially in children population and, 2) poor control of the disease. Also related factors as suboptimal medical management , poor education and health literacy of patients, poor adherence and elevated costs for patients and healthcare systems are some other factors that need urgent implementation. Conclusion: Better and systematic strategies in diagnosis, phenotyping and therapy are available in a specialistic dedicated setting.