Introduction:

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease associated with genetic and environmental factors.

Objective:

To analyze the association between the intercrisis management of pediatric patients with moderate to severe asthma and hospitalizations due to asthma crises (AC).

Materials and Methods:

This was a prospective and cross-sectional study. With prior informed consent from parents, we included patients aged 2 to 18 years who were admitted to an emergency department for moderate to severe AC during June and August 2023. The main variables analyzed were age, gender, place of origin, postcrisis follow-up, history of asthma, initial crisis management at home, proper inhaler use, and hospitalization in the previous year. Data were processed using SPSS. The ethics committee approved the study protocol with informed consent.

Results:

A total of 169 patients met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 6 years, and 58% were male. Postcrisis follow-up was conducted in 51.5% of cases. Intercrisis medication was received by 51%. In the previous year, 57.4% had been hospitalized due to AC. Hospitalization was associated with lack of follow-up (80% vs. 30%, p=0.0001), absence of intercrisis medication (70% vs. 19%, p=0.0001), incorrect inhaler use (71% vs. 29%, p=0.03), and parental lack of knowledge regarding initial crisis management (55% vs. 19%, p=0.0001).

Conclusion:

Pediatric patients with moderate to severe asthma who received follow-up care and intercrisis medication had a tenfold lower risk of hospitalization due to AC.

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