Marked Variation in Paediatric Problematic Severe Asthma Services Across Australia and New Zealand

Ajay Kevat1,2, Samuel Dalton3, Bernadette Goddard4

  • 1Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Queensland Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.

PubMed

Insights

Children with severe asthma in Australia and New Zealand face inconsistent care due to varied services. Most centers lack multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), impacting management and transition to adult care.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Respiratory Medicine
  • Severe Asthma Management
  • Healthcare Service Delivery

Background:

  • Severe asthma affects over 10% of children in Australia and New Zealand (NZ), posing significant management challenges.
  • A subset of these children (up to 5%) have problematic severe asthma (PSA), requiring specialized care.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To survey tertiary pediatric respiratory services across Australia and NZ.
  • To assess the prevalence of children with problematic severe asthma (PSA).
  • To evaluate the availability of biologic therapies, multidisciplinary team (MDT) services, investigations, and transition care processes.

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional observational study utilizing a custom-designed online survey.
  • The survey was distributed to Directors of 14 public pediatric respiratory services across Australia and NZ.
  • Data collection occurred over three months with regular email reminders.

Main Results:

  • All 14 sites responded to the survey.
  • An estimated 561 children with PSA were seen across 12 sites, with 53 receiving biologic treatment.
  • Most sites (8/14) lacked MDT approaches, managing patients in general or asthma clinics. Only 4/14 sites had established transition-to-adult care processes.

Conclusions:

  • Significant heterogeneity exists in service availability and PSA management across tertiary centers in Australia and NZ.
  • The lack of MDT models of care in most centers deviates from international best-practice standards for PSA management.
  • Children with PSA may experience variable quality of care depending on their geographic location.
Abstract

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