Kunling Shen*

Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China

*Corresponding Author: Kunling Shen, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China.

Received: December 17, 2019; Published: December 26, 2019

Citation: Kunling Shen. “Initiative for Chinese’s Children’s Asthma Action Plan”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 3.1 (2020):45-46.

It was reported that in 2018, Chinese population reached 1.39 billion, accounting for 17.8% of the global population, of which the population aged 0-15 accounted for 17.9% of Chinese total population [1]. At the same, China is experiencing a severe shortage of paediatricians, with fewer than 118 000 clinicians to serve a population of 220 million children under the age of 14, a ratio of only 0.5 practitioners per 1000 children [2]. Asthma in children is one of the most common respiratory diseases in childhood [3]. In recent years, the incidence of childhood asthma in China has been increasing. In 2010, the prevalence of childhood asthma in China was 3.02% [4]. It was estimated that there were more than10 million asthmatic children in China, placing an increasing burden on healthcare services.

One of the goals of asthma treatment in children is to achieve and maintain symptom control. Therefore, it is very important to teach parents to recognize the early signs of asthma attack in the first time, and to give timely and appropriate treatment to relieve the symptoms quickly. In recent years, the level of asthma control in China is significantly higher than before. The use rate of ICS has increased 0.7 times than before, reaching 58.7% [4]. However, the overall control level of Chinese children's asthma is still not ideal. In the past 12 months, a survey reported that 66.0% had asthma attacks, 26.8% had emergency treatment for asthma attacks, 16.2% had emergency medical treatment for asthma exacerbations, 51.1% of the children missed school and 48.8% of the parents were absent for work [5].

In order to improve the control level of asthma and reduce the adverse effects of asthma attack, Global Initiative for Asthma(GINA) pointed out that all patients should be provided with written asthma action plan (WAAP) corresponding to their asthma control level and literacy. The United States also advocated WAAP for every asthma patient. China released the first Chinese’s Children’s Asthma Action Plan (CCAAP) on February 19, 2017 in Beijing to improve asthma care [6]. CCAAP outlines which medications and what actions to take in the following 3 zones: (1) the “green zone,” which includes medications taken every day to achieve and maintain good control; (2) the “yellow zone,” which includes which rescue medications to add when asthma gets worse and when to see their providers for follow-up; and (3) the “red zone,” which details what medications to take and how to seek care in the event of an asthma emergency. Such an action plan provides a framework for asthma patients to manage a worsening of their symptoms, with the primary goal of preventing progression to an exacerbation, if used and followed accurately.

What’s more, the rapid evolution of technology over the past few decades provides new opportunities for the design and delivery of self-management initiatives within existing healthcare systems. Applications could support the acquisition and maintenance of these practices through the provision of written and multimedia educational information, reminders for medication taking, and/or the creation of a space for patients to log their symptoms and peak flow. We also developed the application of Asthma Action Plan.

Up to now, we conducted 73 clinical promotion meetings in more than 40 regions and 29 provinces across the country in order to promote CCAAP. We also set up the official website of CCAAP. Since 2017, WeChat subscription of the CCAAP has been launched. The total number of people who pay attention to it is 11,718. The doctors have provided a total of 161 articles, with a cumulative reading of more than 130,000 people. The maximum number of readers of one article is 10,487. The number of doctors registered application was 2895, the number of patients registered application was 5450. The number of followers of WeChat Subscription is 11673. On June 22, 2018, the Chinese’s Children’s Asthma Action Plan Management Project officially entered the “National Telemedicine and Internet Medical Center” platform, becoming the first pediatric respiratory disease management project.

Children's asthma management need long-term efforts and lifecycle self-management. With the development of Internet technology, it brings new opportunities for the management of children's asthma. In China, we have released the paper-based and smart phone-based CCAAP. It is accessible for anyone at any time and any place. In the future, it is still necessary to work together to build an effective and professional asthma self-management platform!

Bibliography

1. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/pcsj/
2. Woodhead M. “China to train 22,000 more paediatricians in next four years”. BMJ 352 (2016): i1376.
3. Global Initiative for Asthma. Global strategy for asthma management and prevention [EB/OL]. Updated. (2018).
4. The National Cooperative Group on Childhood Asthma, Institute of Environmental Health and Related Product Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Third nationwide survey of childhood asthma in urban areas of China. Zhong Hua Er Ke Za Zhi 51 (2013): 729-735.
5. National Parents of Asthmatic Children KAP Project team. “Asthma control status in children and related factors in 29 cities of China”. Zhong Hua Er Ke Za Zhi 51 (2013): 90-95.
6. Shen KL and Zhao J. “Exploration of the Chinese Children’s Asthma Action Plan”. Zhong Hua Shi Yong Er Ke Lin Chuang Za Zhi 32 (2017): 241-244.

Copyright: © 2020 Kunling Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.