Complex interventions reduce use of urgent healthcare in adults with asthma: systematic review with meta-regression

Asthma accounts for considerable healthcare expenditure, a large proportion of which is attributable to use of expensive urgent healthcare. This review examines the characteristics of complex interventions that reduce urgent healthcare use in adults with asthma.

Electronic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PSYCINFO, CINAHL, the British Nursing Library and the Cochrane library, from inception to January 2013 were conducted. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they: i) included adults with asthma ii) assessed the efficacy of a complex intervention using randomised controlled trial design, and iii) included a measure of urgent healthcare utilisation at follow-up. Data on participants recruited, methods, characteristics of complex interventions and the effects of the intervention on urgent healthcare use were extracted.

33 independent studies were identified resulting in 39 comparisons altogether. Pooled effects indicated that interventions were associated with a reduction in urgent healthcare use (OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.67, 0.94). When study effects were grouped according to the components of the interventions used, significant effects were seen for interventions that included general education (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.64, 0.91), skills training (OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.48, 0.86) and relapse prevention (OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.57, 0.98). In multivariate meta-regression analysis, only skills training remained significant.

Complex interventions reduced the use of urgent healthcare in adults with asthma by 21%. Those complex interventions including skills training, education and relapse prevention may be particularly effective in reducing the use of urgent healthcare in adults with asthma.