August 29, 2007
New Asthma Guidelines Emphasize Children 

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in the National Institutes of Health today issued the first comprehensive update in a decade of clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma, including an expanded section on childhood asthma. Calling asthma one of the most common health problems in the United States, the new guidelines note that 22 million people in this country have asthma, including 6.5 million children under age 18. Key features of the guidelines include a new approach to assessing and monitoring asthma by using multiple measures of a patient’s current impairment and future risk; new emphasis on the importance of teaching patients skills to self-monitor their asthma; control of environmental factors and other conditions that can affect asthma; and continued use of a "stepwise approach" to control asthma in which medication and dosages are stepped up when needed and stepped down when possible. The stepwise management charts are revised to specify treatment for three age groups: 0-4 years, 5-11 years, and 12 years and older. The NHLBI said the 5-11 age group was added as the result of emerging evidence that children respond differently than adults to asthma medication. The guidelines are available online at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/index.htm.