Asthma Exacerbations & Respiratory Management International Survey

Asthma is a chronic health condition that affects 300 million humans worldwide and is thought to cause around 1.000 deaths per day. It's estimated that asthma leads to a significant increase in disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Acute asthma exacerbations affect 25-56% of patients with asthma and represent 8% of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. Acute asthma exacerbations continue to burden different health systems, particularly emergency units and intensive care units, despite vast advances in pharmacological treatment of asthma, development of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to improve care of asthma. This alarming situation indicates non-consensus regarding the best approach for managing acute exacerbations of asthma. Despite that variations in clinical practice regarding diagnosis, prevention, education, long-term management and symptom control of asthma have been thoroughly studied globally, less light has been shed on divergence of physicians' approaches when encountering asthmatic patients during acute exacerbations.