Increase in quality of life did not reach threshold for minimally important change, but scalable symptom monitoring may benefit those with low levels of activation
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, May 8, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A scalable symptom monitoring intervention increases asthma-related quality of life in adults, according to a study published online April 23 in JAMA Network Open.
Robert S. Rudin, Ph.D., from RAND in Boston, and colleagues examined the effect of a scalable asthma symptom monitoring intervention on asthma outcomes in a randomized clinical trial involving adults with a diagnosis of asthma between July 2020 and March 2023. Patients were categorized into tiers of varying disease activity. Intervention group patients completed weekly symptom questionnaires and viewed educational information. Usual care group patients received general asthma guidance. The primary analysis included 366 patients.
The researchers found that the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) score increased 0.34 and 0.11 in the intervention and usual care groups, respectively, from baseline to completion of the final questionnaire (adjusted difference-in-difference, 0.23); the difference was statistically significant but did not meet the threshold for minimally important change. Relative to the usual care group, intervention subgroups showed positive differences in MiniAQLQ scores, with noteworthy increases among individuals aged 18 to 44 years, those with low baseline patient activation, those with a low baseline MiniAQLQ score, and those with uncontrolled asthma at baseline (adjusted difference-in-differences, 0.40, 0.77, 0.33, and 0.30, respectively). The intervention and usual care groups had a mean of 0.59 and 0.76 nonroutine asthma-related utilization events, respectively.
“Overall, these data suggest that the between-visit symptom monitoring led to an average improvement in asthma quality of life among study patients, although this improvement did not meet the threshold of a minimally important change,” the authors wrote. “However, the intervention showed potential benefits for certain subgroups and may be useful in other chronic diseases in which between-visit symptoms are important.”
Two authors disclosed ties to industry; one reported holding a related patent.
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