TY - JOUR T1 - Asthma control, symptoms and exacerbations across treatment levels in patients with asthma JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - 2005 AU - Thys van der Molen AU - Monica Fletcher AU - David Price Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/2005.abstract N2 - Introduction: Asthma therapies are widely available in Europe, but exacerbations remain common. We report on asthma control and symptoms across different treatment levels in the largest European survey of patient attitudes to asthma management.Methods: Online surveys were conducted with 8000 patients with asthma (aged 18–50 years, ≥2 prescriptions in the past 2 years) recruited via validated consumer panels from 11 European countries. Only those on identified treatment were included here (N=4330).Results: GINA-defined asthma control levels were low and the incidence of acute exacerbations (oral steroid use for asthma) was high with all treatments (Table). Many respondents on maintenance treatment had night-time awakenings on ≥1 day (46–51%) or used their reliever inhaler ≥3 times (41–48%) in the week before the survey. Half of all respondents using single or combination inhalers reported that their symptoms interfered with normal activities on ≥1 day in the previous week.Conclusions: Asthma symptoms and exacerbations were common across all treatments, despite matching therapy to severity. This highlights the continuing need to close the gap between efficacy in clinical trials and real-world outcomes.View this table: ER -