Asthma Control and Care Among Malaysian Primary School Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Pulmonology
• Public Health

Background:

• Uncontrolled asthma in children leads to significant health issues.
• Effective asthma management is crucial for pediatric populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate asthma control and care quality in primary school children.
• To identify gaps in asthma management strategies for school-aged children.

Main Methods:

• Screened 6441 primary school children for physician-diagnosed asthma.
• Assessed asthma control in 311 children using Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines.
• Analyzed data on exacerbations, hospitalizations, emergency care, follow-up, and medication use.

Main Results:

• Only 51.8% of children had well-controlled asthma; 16.4% had uncontrolled asthma.
• Over 50% experienced asthma exacerbations in the past year, with significant hospitalizations and emergency visits.
• Controller medications were underused (12.2%) compared to reliever medications (35.0%).
• Regular follow-up care was received by only 34.7% of asthmatic children.

Conclusions:

• Asthma control is suboptimal in primary school children.
• Current asthma care practices require improvement, particularly regarding controller medication use and regular follow-up.
• Addressing these issues is vital to reduce poor health outcomes in asthmatic children.