Abstract
The parents of children with asthma and the physicians who treated them were asked to answer a questionnaire about the degree and severity (type of attack) of asthma attack to examine the difference in how they recognized the attack at pediatric clinics in Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama prefectures and others. The following results were obtained: (1) both parents and physicians tended to underestimate the degree of the attack as compared with JPGL2002; (2) for the severity as evaluated from symptoms and frequency, the parents tended to overestimate it in mild cases and underestimate it in severe cases; (3) physicians judged that the clinical course in 38.5% of the patients was less severe than that expected by the therapeutic steps they were actually providing; and (4) for the severity as specified in consideration of the current therapeutic steps, physicians tended to underestimate it as compared with JPGL2002. These results indicate that not a few patients received insufficient treatment because physicians underestimated the severity. It is necessary to provide sufficient information with patients and their parents, while promoting the spread of the guidelines among physicians.
