Childhood asthma perception in Turkey under real-life environment (CAPTURE) study

Successful management of asthma requires good Communication between patient s and the healthcare team. The background and expectations of a patient ine vitably influence the success of any partnership. A questionnaire-based sur vey was performed to obtain data on the perception of the impact of asthma in daily life among children (age-range 6-14 years) and adolescents (age-ra nge 15-20 years). A total of 756 patients (384 children, 372 adolescents) w ere randomly selected from 11 Turkish cities and interviewed face-to-face. Of the total study population, 71.3% received regular follow-up and 75.9% c urrently took asthma medication. Almost 50% reported that asthma affected t heir lives significantly. Even though half of the patients had symptoms at least once a week, one-third were not receiving regular prophylactic treatm ent. Exercise produced asthma symptoms in 45.5% of children and 27.4% of ad olescents. The finding that asthma continues to be a major health problem c learly indicates an urgent need for further management programs in Turkey.