A study reveals that an Internet-based self-management tool developed at the Leiden University Medical Centre has significantly improved asthmatics' ability to reduce their symptoms.

Researchers tested the system in 200 adults - aged between 18 and 50 years old - with asthma, and observed significant results in those whose asthma was either partly controlled or uncontrolled at the beginning of the trial.

Participants were trained to measure their own lung function and input the results, either by a web application or by text message. The website then suggested personalised advice on how to adjust treatment and presented a graphical representation of how they were progressing.

Patients adhered to the system well, with around an 80 % participation rate in the first three months, decreasing to 60 % by the end of the trial. This reflects the reduced need for monitoring, once the control of the disease has been achieved.

Victor van der Meer, a researcher who worked with a team from the Leiden University Medical Centre said: "The improvements in asthma control scores for patients with partly or uncontrolled asthma at baseline suggest a significant reduction of current asthma symptoms. Future asthma treatment strategies should incorporate continuous self-monitoring, as demonstrated here."

Moreover, he added: "This asthma action plan is one of few that not only specifies action points to increase treatment but also to decrease it, which provides the possibility to tailor medication to individual needs. All control level groups showed a similar pattern of pharmacological therapy over time: an increase in inhaled corticosteroids in the first three months, followed by a decrease in the next nine months."

 Further information:

• Original news article - British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information Management
• Leiden University Medical Centre
• Respiratory Research - Weekly self-monitoring and treatment adjustment benefit patients with partly controlled and uncontrolled asthma: an analysis of the SMASHING study