MedWire News: Teenagers with asthma significantly overestimate their ability to control their condition, study results show.

"We've known that adolescent asthma patients tend to have poorer outcomes than younger children with the condition, and this study shows that teens tend to think they're in control when they may be having difficulty," said lead researcher Dr Maria Britto, from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, USA.

Dr Britto and team surveyed 201 asthmatic teenagers, aged an average of 16 years, about their medication use, respiratory symptoms, activity limitations caused by their disease and their perceived ability to control their condition.

Based on the responses, the researchers categorized each participant's asthma as 'well controlled', 'not well controlled' or 'very poorly controlled'.

The team found that only 8% of participants had well-controlled asthma, 46% had not well controlled asthma and 46% had very poorly controlled disease.

Despite this, however, 63% of the teenagers believed their asthma was well controlled, 33% said it was not well controlled and only 3% rated their asthma as very poorly controlled.

Indeed, just 1% of the participants underestimated their asthma control while 74% significantly overestimated their ability to control their condition.

Dr Britto concluded: "Adolescents dramatically overestimate their asthma control compared to their own reports of symptoms, rescue medications and activity limitations.

"These findings suggest adolescents may not understand that better control is possible, which in turn may contribute to lack of [medication] adherence."

She added: "For those of us who treat teens with asthma, these findings will help us address with patients their perceived control versus what is actually going on. As we have this dialogue with them, our hope is that it will improve their ability to manage their asthma and improve their health."

The research was presented at the joint meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies and the Asian Society for Pediatric Research in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.