TY - JOUR T1 - Assessing asthma risk in primary care: Can the AAA test predict future asthma attacks? JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - 3405 AU - Samantha Walker AU - John Blakey AU - Sunni Murdock AU - Dominic Clarke Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/3405.abstract N2 - BackgroundThe AAA (Avoid Asthma Attacks) test (Blakey J et al. Thorax 2012;67(2):A31) assesses risk of an asthma attack but requires validation before utility can be confirmed.MethodsWe searched records of 14,191 people with asthma from 26 UK general practices. The AAA test consists of 8 factors which have been shown to have a consistent and clinically important (OR>1.25) association with asthma attacks. Factors are weighted in proportion to effect size when expressed as an odds ratio (table 1).View this table:Adherence was defined as collecting >80% of prescriptions for inhaled preventer therapy over the previous year. Daily reliever use was inferred from the frequency of prescription of short-acting bronchodilators. Patients' risk was retrospectively (Dec 2012) categorised as: low (no noted risks=0), medium (1-4 points) or high (>4 points). Primary outcome was defined as a composite of emergency admission or ED attendance for asthma; asthma attack treated in primary care;or acute drop in FEV1 of >10% in the following 12mths.ResultsView this table:There was increased risk of an unscheduled emergency asthma event in people with a risk score >5 across all categories of event. People in the 'high' risk category were >11 times more likely to see a worsening of their condition or significant event (admission/AE attendance).ConclusionFactors in the AAA test appear to identify those at increased risk of asthma attacks but require further validation. ER -