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November 18, 2005
Asthma patients who
receive care from an allergist report better control of their disease
than those who are treated by a primary-care doctor, a new study
finds.
Researchers from
Kaiser-Permanente in San Diego surveyed nearly 3,600 people with
persistent asthma. Of those people, 47 percent said they received
regular asthma care from a primary-care doctor, nearly 25 percent saw
an allergist, 5.5 percent consulted a pulmonologist, and 19.4 percent
said they had no regular source of asthma care.Compared to asthma patients who received regular care from a
primary-care
doctor, asthma patients treated by an allergist reported:
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Fewer asthma control
problems
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Less severe asthma
symptoms
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Significantly higher
scores for asthma-specific quality of life and for overall general
health,
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Significantly better
understanding of how to manage their asthma and greater overall
satisfaction with care.
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Asthma patients seeing an
allergist were also less likely to have required hospitalization or
have unscheduled doctor visits during the previous year; less likely
to have overused rescue medications called Beta-agonists; and were
more likely to have received inhaled steroids to control their asthma.
"These are important data that can be used by patients, payers,
insurance
companies and providers to improve outcomes for asthma patients,"
study co-author Dr. Michael Schatz said in a prepared statement. He is
a past president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma &
Immunology. The study findings appear in the December issue of the
Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.
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