Quick Links
Quick Links
Eliminate Asthma

Physicians, Nurses and Respiratory Therapists

Click on links to read more:


National Asthma Guidelines Updated

New Approaches for Monitoring Asthma Control, Expanded Recommendations for Children

The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) issued the first comprehensive update in a decade of clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma. The guidelines emphasize the importance of asthma control and introduce new approaches for monitoring asthma. Updated recommendations for managing asthma include an expanded section on childhood asthma (with an additional age group), new guidance on medications, new recommendations on patient education in settings beyond the physician's office, and new advice for controlling environmental factors that can cause asthma symptoms.

Coordinated by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, NAEPP convenes an expert panel when there is sufficient science to warrant a rigorous, systematic review of the published medical literature to ensure that the asthma guidelines reflect the latest scientific advances.

Eliminate deaths from asthma in Arizona: This is the vision of the Arizona Asthma Coalition

Hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to asthma are preventable when patients receive the appropriate primary care. Under treatment and inappropriate therapy are major contributors to asthma morbidity and mortality in the United States .

Primary care physicians, nurses, allergists, pulmonologists, respiratory therapists, health care plans, pharmacists and school nurses are all part of a team of caregivers who can improve the asthma care for people with asthma.

Based on the state of knowledge today, the National Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma provide the best algorithms for diagnosing and managing asthma. The guidelines are based on recommendations of the Expert Panel of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP), National Institutes of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Through collaboration and partnerships with medical providers and health care organizations, the Arizona Asthma Coalition encourages the use of these guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. These "best practices" are summarized in this section.

Here you can retrieve a very informative chart entitled, "Stepwise Approach for Managing Asthma". Since the chart is the size of a full page in landscape format, we've provided it in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Word formats.

Just click on the links below and be sure to print in landscape format.

Managing_Asthma.pdf (Acrobat format, 45K)


Patient-Family Tool Kit

The Patient-Family Tool Kit contains asthma education materials for your asthma patients and their families. These materials may be duplicated and sent home with your asthma patients, giving them the opportunity to read and fully understand the information. We hope this information will enhane the patient education you and your staff provide in the office, clinic or hospital.

Patient-Family Asthma Tool Kit 


Provider's Tool Kit

The Provider's Tool Kit contains some key points and new information about asthma. It is not intended to be comprehensive and it does not cover all aspects of asthma care and management. In addition to the information contained in the Provider's Tool Kit, we have added several links to asthma action plans and the asthma guidelines. We have provided several asthma action plans in both English and Spanish for you to choose from. There are many other action plans available, so find the one that works best for your patients.

Provider's Tool Kit
Asthma Pocketguide
Asthma Action Plan - Amercan Lung Association
AAP - Peak Flow Numbers (English)
AAP - Peak Flow Numbers (Spanish)
Asthma Action Plan - Standard (English)
Asthma Action Plan - Standard (Spanish)
Asthma Action Plan - Peak Flow Meter Calculator 
                                                             

If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat reader, click here and download it for free.



Brief Data Nationwide asthma

  • Affected 14 million adults (6.8%) and 6.4 million children (12.2%) in 2002
  • More than 4,269 deaths in 2000
  • Between 400,000 and 500,000 hospitalized each year
  • 14 million days of school missed each year
  • About 100 million days of restricted activity each year
  • Collective cost estimated to be $12.7 billion for 1998
  • Between 1980 and 1994, the prevalence of asthma increased 75% overall and 74% among children 5 to 14 years of age.
In Arizona asthma
  • 2004 ADHS estimates 611,461 people identify themselves as having asthma
  • Every year an average of 80 individuals died of asthma
  • Over 20,000 asthma related hospitalizations during year 2001
  • Hospitalizations are more common in females than males
  • Total hospitalization cost for the year 2001 was over $45 millions
  • Over half (59%) of the admissions due to asthma were females


Map Data:
Asthma as Primary Diagnosis for Less than 21 years old
Hospital Discharge 2001
Discharges2001 population 0-20Rate per 100,000
APACHE COUNTY98181110.0
COCHISE COUNTY4111607353.2
COCONINO COUNTY3413803246.3
GILA COUNTY164105389.8
GRAHAM COUNTY84004199.8
GREENLEE COUNTY4861464.3
LA PAZ COUNTY41332300.3
MARICOPA COUNTY1222345633353.6
MOHAVE COUNTY3812856295.6
NAVAJO COUNTY3711209330.1
PIMA COUNTY30086924345.1
PINAL COUNTY6017579341.3
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY94444202.5
YAVAPAI COUNTY4913172372.0
YUMA COUNTY7518175412.7
Arizona1906553943344.1

Arizona Asthma Hospital Discharges
Number of Asthma for 2001Rate of Asthma 20012001 total population
Arizona474389.45307331
Apache County3449.668610
Cochise County10688.9119281
Coconino County6958.5117916
Gila County3772.051419
Graham County3089.833390
Greenlee County560.28301
La Paz County1260.719759
Maricopa County288490.33194798
Mohave County15495.2161788
Navajo County7776.9100135
Pima County872101.0863049
Pinal County15481.5188846
Santa Cruz County2050.539590
Yavapai County15085.5175507
Yuma County13984.3164942



Graphs:

Opportunities for Tackling Asthma
  • Research: disseminate new knowledge about the pathophysiology of the disease
  • National Guidelines: implement "best practices" for asthma diagnosis, treatment, case management and patient education
  • Prevention: reduce asthma attacks and disability days by following guidelines - avoid triggers, maintain clean indoor environments, diagnosis and treat according to current protocols, develop partnership between caregivers and patients, provide education for patient self-care to reduce frequency and severity of asthma
  • Managed Care Quality Improvement: promote improved asthma management in systems as part of HEDIS certification process

Get Certified

The NAECB exam is a voluntary testing program used to assess qualified health professionals knowledge in asthma education. It is an evaluative process that demonstrates that rigorous education and experience requirements have been met. Certification is voluntary and is not required by law for employment in the field, although some agencies may use AE-C® certification as a basis for employment, job promotions, salary increases, or other considerations. 

http://www.naecb.org/