Guideline adherence to aeroallergen-focused activities in adult asthma care: Insights from an online survey

The US asthma management guidelines emphasize the control of environmental factors—particularly indoor aeroallergens—as a key component of asthma care. A recent study of National Health Interview Survey data found that approximately 80% of adults with asthma reported allergy symptoms, which were associated with a higher adjusted prevalence of experiencing an asthma attack. To be able to guide counseling on home-based allergen mitigation strategies, providers should assess all patients with asthma to determine whether indoor allergens are asthma triggers. Aeroallergen testing supports this assessment and can guide counseling when the patient’s history is inconclusive. However, because many people with asthma lack access to asthma specialists, who commonly perform this testing, the current guidelines support using the clinical history alone as a basis for counseling. Yet, whether providers routinely engage in allergen-focused history taking and counseling remains poorly studied. Moreover, whether providers consider patient-level barriers to implementing allergen mitigation strategies, as recommended by the guidelines, is unclear. In this study, we evaluated providers’ reported engagement in the suite of guideline-recommended, allergen-focused clinical activities that support precision management of asthma.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Patrick K Gleeson, Knashawn H Morales, Hannah J Lee, Olajumoke O Fadugba, Priya J Patel, Audreesh Banerjee, Andrea J Apter, Jason D Christie, Meeta Prasad Kerlin