Background
A written asthma action plan (WAAP) is one of the treatment strategies to achieve good asthma control in children.
Methods
This randomized controlled trial was conducted to observe the effect of WAAP on asthma control and quality of life using the Asthma Control Questionnaire and Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) at baseline and after 3 months. A repeated measure analysis of variance was used to analyze the mean score difference between the two groups.
Results
There was no significant difference in mean score for asthma control at baseline between groups (F[degree of freedom (df)]=1.17 [1, 119], P=0.282). However, at 3 months, a significant difference in mean scores between groups was observed (F[df]=7.32 [1, 119], P=0.008). The mean±standard deviation (SD) scores in the intervention and control groups were 0.96±0.53 and 1.21±0.49, respectively. For the analysis of the PAQLQ, no significant difference was observed in the mean score for the quality of life baseline in both groups. There were significant mean score changes for the quality of life (F[df]=10.9 [1, 119], P=0.001) at 3 months follow-up, where those in the intervention group scored a mean±SD score of 6.19±0.45, and those in the control group scored 5.94±0.38. A time-group interaction analysis using repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant differences in mean score changes (F[df]=5.03 [1, 116], P=0.027) and (F[df]=11.55 [1, 116], P=0.001) where a lower mean score was observed in the intervention group, indicating better asthma control and quality of life, respectively. A significant (P<0.001) negative Pearson correlation between asthma control and quality of life (-0.65) indicated a moderate correlation.
Conclusion
WAAP, along with standard asthma treatment, improves asthma care.

Citations

• Accessibility of health and preventive care for patients with bronchial asthma
  L.Yu. Nikitina, O.S. Mishina, V.V. Gainitdinova, T.Yu. Gneusheva, O.V. Nagatkina, R.M. Aynetdinov, G.V. Lukyanova, I.A. Bogdanov, I.A. Deev, S.N. Avdeev
  Journal of Respiratory Medicine.2025; 1(1): 15.     CrossRef
• The impact of asthma education grounded in virtual reality technology upon the quality of life of pediatric patients with bronchial asthma
  Huijuan Wang, Qing Dong, Xiaowei Wang
  Frontiers in Pediatrics.2025;[Epub]     CrossRef
• The utility of the necessity-concerns framework (NCF) in explaining adherence and parental beliefs about controller medication in Saudi Arabian children with asthma
  Marja A. Alyami, Mohammed M. Alyami, Ahmed H Alasimi, Jaber S. Alqahtani, Abdullah A. Alqarni, Abdulelah M. Aldhahir
  Journal of Asthma.2024; 61(5): 436.     CrossRef

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The world is currently challenged to handle this pandemic. The common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, fatigue, and shortness of breath. There are few reports on the association of SARS-CoV-2 with ocular abnormalities including conjunctivitis. We report a case of a 54-year-old woman who presented solely with conjunctivitis subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19. A lack of full history of her travel abroad was another issue leading to a delay in evaluating her COVID-19 status that increased the infection risk to her managing team. Thus, primary care practitioners should be suspicious of this atypical feature of COVID-19, thus enabling us to identify such patients at entry points. Maintaining safety measures while managing patients is also crucial.

Citations

• Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Conjunctival Swab Samples Among Patients Presenting with Conjunctivitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  Sezen Karakus, James Foster, Xi Dai, Anthony Gonzales, Xi Zhu, Charles Eberhart, William Hsu
  Clinical Ophthalmology.2022; Volume 16: 127.     CrossRef
• COVID-19 and the Eye: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature
  Yilin Feng, Stephen T. Armenti, Shahzad I. Mian
  International Ophthalmology Clinics.2021; 61(1): 1.     CrossRef
• A Year of Living Dangerously: Challenges and Recommendations for Safely Performing Ophthalmic Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic, from Start to Finish
  Juan Pablo Salica, Constanza Potilinski, Marcia Querci, Ignacio Navarro, Juan Sebastián Rivero, Pablo Daponte, Roberto Pineda ll, Juan E Gallo
  Clinical Ophthalmology.2021; Volume 15: 261.     CrossRef
• Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Through the Ocular Route
  Jing-Yu Qu, Hua-Tao Xie, Ming-Chang Zhang
  Clinical Ophthalmology.2021; Volume 15: 687.     CrossRef
• Conjunctivitis as a Sentinel of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: a Need of Revision for Mild Symptoms
  Alexios A. Panoutsopoulos
  SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine.2020; 2(7): 859.     CrossRef
• Are eyes the windows to COVID-19? Systematic review and meta-analysis
  Rina La Distia Nora, Ikhwanuliman Putera, Dhiya Farah Khalisha, Indah Septiana, Asri Salima Ridwan, Ratna Sitompul
  BMJ Open Ophthalmology.2020; 5(1): e000563.     CrossRef