In a national study led by Dr Tim Harrison at the University of Nottingham and funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Researchers are inviting people with asthma to participate in a clinical trial exploring whether a new approach to managing asthma could prevent an attack.

The researchers aim to find out if advising patients to temporarily quadruple their inhaled corticosteroid treatment when asthma symptoms start to deteriorate may help to prevent a more serious asthma attack from happening. If found to be effective, this advice could be incorporated into standard asthma management guidelines.

Now recruiting locally

Recruitment for Four-Fold Asthma is about to start in West Midlands south and we are looking for additional GP practices to recruit 10 patients per practice.

GPs or nurses are asked to identify patients who have asthma, use an inhaled steroid or combination inhaler and have had at least one asthma attack requiring prednisolone tablets in the last 12 months.

Trial intervention

Enrolled participants will be randomised and taught how to use one of two asthma action plans that will contain advice on how to manage asthma. One of the action plans will contain standard advice on how to manage asthma whilst the other will include information on the new approach.

Participants will then be invited to attend at least two follow-up visits at their own GP practice over the next 12 months with an additional visit if their asthma control deteriorates.

This is a multi-centre pragmatic, randomised, normal care-controlled clinical trial, where the primary outcome is 'time to first asthma exacerbation', defined as: the need for systemic corticosteroids and/or unscheduled health care consultation for asthma (i.e. reaching zone 3 or 4 of the Asthma UK self-management plan).

If your practice would like to take part or like more information, please contact: Julia Roscoe, CRN Research Facilitator j.roscoe@warwick.ac.uk  or Linda Field, CRN Research Nurse linda.field@warwick.ac.uk