DEFINE-RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Determining the Effectiveness of a FeNO-guided asthma management intervention in primary care: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with nested economic and process evaluations
IRAS ID
307116
Contact name
Kay Wang
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Governance, Ethics & Assurance Team
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN16411887
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
According to Asthma UK, around 5.4 million people in the UK receive treatment for asthma. Treatments include ‘reliever’ inhalers to open up the airways and ‘preventer’ inhalers, which contain steroids to reduce swelling (inflammation) in the airways.
Asthma is a difficult condition to treat because how a person feels does not always match how much inflammation is in their airways. Doctors and nurses in hospital clinics therefore sometimes use a simple breath test called fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) to measure inflammation in the airways. This helps them make sure that patients are taking their inhalers properly and are on the right dose of treatment to control inflammation in their airways and prevent asthma attacks. Measuring FeNO can also help doctors and nurses reduce treatment safely in patients who are not benefitting from it. This could potentially lessen side effects from medicines, improve quality of life, and save costs.Asthma UK says that around 75% of asthma patients had a check-up in their GP surgery in 2017. However, it is not clear from previous research whether FeNO should also be measured during these check-ups. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has asked for further research on this question.
We have developed an online intervention for doctors and nurses in GP surgeries to help them use FeNO to target and adjust asthma treatments more effectively. To find out how well the intervention works, we will do a study involving asthma patients from GP surgeries where health care professionals and patients will use our intervention for routine asthma check-ups. This will show how much our intervention, if effective, can contribute to reducing asthma attacks and improving quality of life and produce evidence to help policymakers make asthma services more efficient and cost-effective, improving asthma management in the community.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0139
Date of REC Opinion
21 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion