Results Although highlighting a general lack of high- quality real-life effectiveness observational research on these clinical ly important topics , the analysis provided insights into how identified observational studies might inform asthma guidelines developers and clinicians .
Overall , RELEVANT appeared reliable and easy to use by expert review ers .
Conclusions Using such quality appraisal tools is m and atory to assess whether specific observational real-life effectiveness studies can be used to inform guideline development and /or decision-making in clinical practice
Abstract Introduction A Task Force was commissioned jointly by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology ( EAACI ) and the Respiratory Effectiveness Group ( REG ) to develop a  quality assessment tool for real-life observational research to identify high- quality real-life asthma studies that could be considered within future guideline development .
Impact of a short-term educational intervention on adherence to asthma treatment and on asthma control.
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of a short-term individualized education program on adherence to asthma treatment , inhalation techniques , and asthma control . METHODS A prospect i ve study involving patients aged 14 years or older , with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and recruited from the asthma outpatient clinic of a university hospital in the city of Porto Alegre , Brazil . The study was conducted in two phases ( before and after the educational intervention ) . At a routine medical visit , the participants completed a  general question naire in order to assess the level of asthma control and inhalation techniques . The participants also underwent pulmonary function testing . Subsequently , they participated in an asthma education program , which consisted of one individualized session . The participants were reevaluated after three months . RESULTS Of the 174 patients recruited , 115 completed the study . Between the first and second evaluations , there was a significant improvement in the effective use of inhaled corticosteroids ( 90.4 % vs. 93.3 % ; p = 0.003 ) , the effective use of long-acting β2 agonists ( 57.4 % vs. 63.5 % ; p < 0.0001 ) , the effective use of a combined regimen with these two medications ( 57.4 % vs. 62.6 % ; p < 0.0001 ) , and the self-reported adherence to corticosteroid therapy ( p = 0.001 ) . There was a significant decrease in the proportion of patients visiting ERs ( 30.4 % vs. 23.5 % ; p = 0.012 ) . However , the level of asthma control and the inhalation technique did not improve significantly ( p = 0.095 and p = 0.512 , respectively ) . CONCLUSIONS This short-term asthma education program result ed in an improvement in the use of medications for asthma control and a decrease in the number of ER visits , although it had no significant effect on the inhalation technique
Results Although highlighting a general lack of high- quality real-life effectiveness observational research on these clinical ly important topics , the analysis provided insights into how identified observational studies might inform asthma guidelines developers and clinicians .
Overall , RELEVANT appeared reliable and easy to use by expert review ers .
Conclusions Using such quality appraisal tools is m and atory to assess whether specific observational real-life effectiveness studies can be used to inform guideline development and /or decision-making in clinical practice
Abstract Introduction A Task Force was commissioned jointly by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology ( EAACI ) and the Respiratory Effectiveness Group ( REG ) to develop a  quality assessment tool for real-life observational research to identify high- quality real-life asthma studies that could be considered within future guideline development .