Paediatric asthma control under a community management model in China: a protocol for a prospective multicentre cohort study

INTRODUCTION: Childhood asthma is globally one of the most common respiratory disorders and accounts for more school absences and more hospitalizations than any other chronic illness. The worldwide economic burden of this disease exceeds those of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Proper intervention and effective management is of paramount importance for the control and prognosis of paediatric asthma. Unfortunately, the rate of uncontrolled and partially controlled paediatric asthma in China is >90%. This study will use a new management model to investigate the status of asthma control and the adherence of patients to a medication protocol. METHODS: This prospective, multicentre, observational study will be conducted at 15 hospitals on children (n=800) diagnosed with asthma. Each patient will be assigned to either the nearest community hospital or Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, whichever is closer to the patient’s home, according to the decision of parents. Participants were divided into two groups: tertiary care hospital (Shanghai Children’s Medical Center) follow-up group and community hospital follow-up group. The primary outcome will be the difference in the proportion of controlled, partially controlled and uncontrolled asthma among the two groups. Secondary outcomes will be the differences in adherence rate, lung function, exacerbations, growth development, total asthma-related unscheduled visits, days absent from school and loss of working days for the patient’s caregiver. Data will be analysed on an intention-to-treat and a per-protocol basis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University of Medicine. We plan to publish the results of this study in a peer-reviewed journal article.