Table 1

Overall scope and dimension of the surveys
Study name
 Country
 Objective
 Population
 Design
 Date
MORI/EFA [12]
 France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain
 Family QoL impact
 Parents
 Face-to-face interview. International comparison
 1999–2002
TARGET [11]
 Italy
 Symptoms, causes, treatment
 HCPs, parents
 Face-to-face interviews, with physicians and patients (adults and children). Advisory board-driven
 2002
AIRLife [13]
 Germany
 Efficacy/patient preferences
 HCPs, parents
 Telephone interviews with physicians and adult patients. Face-to-face interviews with asthmatic children and parents of asthmatic children
 1999
National Paediatric Asthma [14]
 Spain
 Attitudes/QoL
 Parents of young children
 Face-to-face interviews with parents of children with asthma (aged 2–5 years)
 2000
ASTHMA [6]
 Belgium
 +/- montelukast
 GP/parents
 GPs interviewed asthma patients before and then at least 4 weeks after treatment with montelukast
 2001
ASTEQ/ASTHMA [15]
 France
 Symptoms while using ICS. Perception of control
 Prescribers/patients/(children in subset)
 Anonymous questionnaire of physicians and patients including a small pediatric substudy conducted at 20 asthma schools with 300 children (aged 2–14)
 1999/2003
NOP/GPnet [16]
 Great Britain
 BTS guidelines impact
 GPs/nurses/parents
 Postal questionnaire, GPs, nurses and parents of children with asthma
 2002
UK AIR [17]
 Great Britain
 Asthma control
 GPs/nurses/children/parents
 Questionnaire of patients, telephone interviews with practice nurses, face-to-face interviews of GPs
 1997
Finnish AIR [18]
 Finland
 Asthma control
 GPs/nurses/adult patients/children/parents
 Postal questionnaire
 2000
Danish AIR [19]
 Denmark
 Reality asthma control (2 year)
 Patients
 Postal questionnaire
 2000–2002
Norwegian AIR [20]
 Norway
 Reality asthma control
 Patients/GPs
 Postal questionnaire of patients, telephone interview of GPs
 2000–2001
ALMA [21]
 Sweden
 Reality asthma control
 Patients/GPs
 Telephone interviews with adult asthma patients. Questionnaire for GPs with similar questions
 2000–2001
AIRE [22]
 France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden
 How are treatment guidelines truly being applied/perceptions
 Patients/children
 Telephone interviews with adult asthma patients (randomly selected)
 1999
ECRHS [7]
 14 countries (including Canada)
 Follow up on asthma development and use of services
 Patients
 Administered questionnaire
 1990–2000
ECRHSII [23]
 10 EU countries
 Perception of severity, impact on society
 Patients
 Telephone interviews (randomly selected). Advisory-board driven
 1999
Living and Breathing [24]
 UK
 Symptoms/control
 Patients
 Face-to-face interviews
 2001
RESPONSE [25]
 Germany, Spain, Great Britain
 True symptom control, QoL, drug use
 Adults/juveniles
 Face-to-face interviews
 2001
ACE [26]
 UK
 Treatment (ICS) benefit perceptions
 Patients at pharmacies
 Face-to-face interviews
 2002
Asthma in America [27]
 USA
 Asthma in USA (misc.)
 Adults, HCPs (physicians, nurses, pharmacists)
 Telephone interviews (randomly selected)
 2001
Asthma [28]
 Finland
 National impact snapshot
 Patients
 Review
 1998
Psychology/Health and Medicine [29]
 Sweden
 Comparing assessment methodologies
 Patients
 Questionnaire-based survey
 2003
AJN [30]
 USA
 Assessment/outcome tools
 Children/parents
 Review
 2002
Illness Management Survey [31]
 USA
 Barriers to juvenile treatment (questionnaire support)
 Juveniles
 Questionnaire-based survey. Focus on compliance in highly noncompliant subset
 2003
HUNAIR [32]
 Hungary
 Cost, morbidity, control
 Children/adults
 Questionnaire-based survey
 1998–1999

AIR, Asthma In Real Life; BTS, British Thoracic Society; ECRHS, European Community Respiratory Health Survey; EU, European

Union; GP, general practitioner; HCP, healthcare provider; ICS, inhaled corticosteroids; QoL, quality of life.

Holgate et al. BMC Pulmonary Medicine 2006 6(Suppl 1):S2   doi:10.1186/1471-2466-6-S1-S2