Non-Interventional Study to Describe the Clinical Management in Asthmatic Patients (NICMA)

Asthma is a heterogenic chronic disease that affects more than 300 million people worldwide, which it's characterized by acute symptomatic episodes of varying severity, including intermittently inflammation and narrowing of the airways in the lungs. The prevalence in Spain it is estimated to be around 5%, according to the European Community Respiratory Survey (ECRHS) and seems to be increased due to a higher rate of asthma diagnosis. In this condition there's substantial proportion of patients with a poor disease control, which conducts to an important negative impact in their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the need to use health care resources. During the past decades multiple clinical practice guidelines, such as the international Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and national guidelines as Guía Española para el Manejo del Asma (GEMA) have been launched with the aim of improving quality of care in patients with asthma and reduce the high public burden associated to this disease. However, several studies have concluded that high proportion of patients remain uncontrolled, being in Spain estimated around 50%, and there's direct evidence of poor adherence to the guideline's recommendations for asthma management. This evidence raises the need to determine the assistance quality care in asthma population in the influential area of Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria through the assistance quality care indicators established by GEMA guidelines. The aim of this study is to obtain clinical data that allow to assess assistance quality degree in order to find improvement opportunities to achieve a better control of asthmatic patients within this influential area.