Changing asthma prescribing in primary care 1995-1998

To identify changes in asthma related prescribing in primary care over the period April 1995 to April 1998.

Anonymised electronic patient information from the Continuous Morbidity Recording practices was used in this study. Yearly cross-sectional analysis of asthma related prescribing was performed in a cohort of 4,968 patients diagnosed with asthma and resident in Continuous Morbidity Recording practices throughout the period 1995-1998.

There was a significant increasing trend for prescription of inhaled corticos-teroids and other recommended adjunct therapies with a significant trend from steps 1 and 2 of the British Thoracic Society Guidelines to steps 3 and 4. These changes were particularly evident in children.

The use of routinely acquired computerised data from primary care offers the potential of relatively inexpensive and comprehensive whole population surveillance for changing management in common diseases such as asthma.