Education programmes for children with asthma.

Asthma training programmes for parents and children have been developed to increase both selfmanagement skills of asthmatic children and compliance wi th medical regimens. There has been ample evidence that health education pr ogrammes can reduce morbidity, health costs and improve the quality of life of children with asthma, as well as that of their parents. It is now widel y recommended that all patients with asthma be provided with training enabl ing them to either monitor the situation, recognize signs of deterioration, initiate treatment of an attack, adjust their maintenance therapy, or comp ly with action plans. However, the majority of physicians has not adopted a sthma education programmes as a regular part of routine asthma care. A key reason is that undertaking asthma education programmes or obtaining agreeme nt from the national center for health for a disability allowance to help s upport medical cost is time-consuming. However, these issues are the respon sibility of politicians rather than physicians. The longer they are neglect ed, the more distant effective and efficient health care in the field of as thma will be. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.