Assessing asthma control in children 5 to 11 years of age

Components of control		Classification of asthma control (children 5 to 11 years of age)
Components of control		Well controlled	Not well controlled	Very poorly controlled
Impairment	Symptoms	≤2 days/week, but not more than once on each day	>2 days/week or multiple times on ≤2 days/week	Throughout the day
	Nighttime awakenings	≤1 time/month	≥2 times/month	≥2 times/week
	Interference with normal activity	None	Some limitation	Extremely limited
	Short-acting beta₂-agonist use for symptom control (not prevention of EIB)	≤2 days/week	>2 days/week	Several times per day
	Lung function
	FEV₁ or peak flow	>80% predicted/personal best	60 to 80% predicted/personal best	<60% predicted/personal best
	FEV₁/FVC	>80%	75 to 80%	<75%
Risk	Exacerbations requiring oral systemic glucocorticoids	0 to 1/year	≥2/year (see footnote)
	Exacerbations requiring oral systemic glucocorticoids	Consider severity and interval since last exacerbation
	Treatment-related adverse effects	Medication side effects can vary in intensity from none to very troublesome and worrisome. The level of intensity does not correlate to specific levels of control but should be considered in the overall assessment of risk.

The level of control is based on the most severe impairment or risk category. Assess impairment domain by patient's/caregiver's recall of previous two to four weeks and by spirometry/or peak flow measures. Symptom assessment for longer periods should reflect a global assessment, such as inquiring whether the patient's asthma is better or worse since the last visit. At present, there are inadequate data to correspond frequencies of exacerbations with different levels of asthma control. In general, more frequent and intense exacerbations (eg, requiring urgent, unscheduled care, hospitalization, or ICU admission) indicate poorer disease control. For treatment purposes, patients who had ≥2 exacerbations requiring oral systemic glucocorticoids in the past year may be considered the same as patients who have not well-controlled asthma, even in the absence of impairment levels consistent with not well-controlled asthma.

EIB: exercise-induced bronchospasm; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume in 1 second; FVC: forced vital capacity; ICU: intensive care unit.

Reproduced from: National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute Expert Panel Report 3 (EPR 3): Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma. NIH Publication no. 08-4051, 2007.

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